Cathedral: An Illness and a Healing

Henderson, Pushcart Prize editor and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award, goes beyond the usual cancer memoir in his recovery story, which is filled with spirit and humor. Set in his home state of Maine, his tale is rich in references to place, particularly his hometown of Sedgwick and his home on Christy ("Christ with a Y") Hill. As Henderson begins to construct a stone cathedral on his property, he receives a cancer diagnosis. Surgery to remove a cancerous breast and treatment follow. Throughout his recovery, in the face of a recurrence of cancer and the despair that threatens to overwhelm him, Henderson focuses on returning to Maine to finish his cathedral. That vision sustains him. As it sometimes can for those who suffer cancer, the illness strengthens Henderson's faith: "faith I didn't know I had, from my childhood, bred in the bone," he writes. Ultimately, his is a story of hope. (Oct.)