This Changes Everything: A Surprisingly Funny Story About Race, Cancer, Faith, and Other Things

Comedian Merritt (I Take My Coffee Black) recounts his four-year struggle with cancer in this witty, digressive, and often moving memoir. After he was diagnosed with lipiosarcoma, a rare cancer that originates in the body’s fatty tissues, at age 44—and underwent emergency surgery to remove a 27-pound mass from his abdomen—Merritt learned that the cancer had not been fully eradicated and would need to be scanned every six months. As his life devolved into half-year “countdowns,” Merritt was forced to shift out of “strong Black man mode” and grapple with his emotions and his faith. At the same time, the Black Lives Matter movement prompted him to consider his illness in light of what it means to be Black in America (noting that he and George Floyd were nearly the same height and weight, Merritt writes of his remorse that Floyd is gone “and I’m still here”). Though other musings can feel less tethered to the central narrative, Merritt draws out the humor and pathos of his illness with impressive self-awareness (within a week after surgery, he went from “having a heart-to-heart with God, promising that I would never take life for granted” to “ripping my care nurse a new one because she didn’t get me a sippy cup of juice fast enough”). This entertains and inspires. (Jan.)