A Lucky Life Interrupted: A Memoir of Hope

Brokaw's cushy, busy retirement, bolstered by the popularity of his Greatest Generation books about WWII and his long tenure as a highly respected NBC newsman, was derailed in 2013 by a dreaded diagnosis of cancer. The former anchorman, now 75, went to the famed Mayo Clinic for a second opinion on a nagging back problem, with the verdict of incurable myeloma, a cancer of the blood. Brokaw writes that the cancer transforms everything it touches. Some readers will be saddened by the distracting remembrances of D-Day events, Nelson Mandela's waning moments, the crumbling of the Twin Towers, and the constant name-dropping; those who expect the book to center on the rigors of the disease and chemotherapy will instead find that Brokaw focuses on the joys of his blessed life: "I've had a life rich in personal and professional rewards beyond what should be anyone's even exaggerated expectations." Unlike some influential narratives on life and maladies, such as Audre Lorde's Cancer Journals and Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor, Brokaw's observations and opinions are frank only up to a point, without too much grim analysis, sobering reflection on morality, or despair. (May)