Read an Excerpt
When
people who aren't writers write about having cancer, I find their
stories compelling and heartbreaking --- after all, these are just
plain folks who don't usually have the arsenal and experience of a
lifetime of creative wordsmithery behind them to utilize in
explaining for us a horrific and deadly time in their life. When
writers get cancer, they get cute and funny and self-deprecating to
the point that you start to lose the sense of immediate fear and
danger in which these people have found themselves. And, like with
a thriller starring a very big Hollywood star, you know that in the
end the star will not be killed off, because no one kills off Mel
Gibson or Harrison Ford --- they are built to last. Thus, in BALD
IN THE LAND OF BIG HAIR, Joni Rodgers, by virtue of the fact that
she is writing this book, lets us know that a) writers make cancer
funny and b) writers who write books about cancer don't die ---
they happily slip into remission.It's
not that I want to downplay the nightmare it must be to have cancer
at all. Certainly, Rodgers, a writer/actress and mother of two, has
many things she does not wish to lose in her life, particularly her
ability to live that life. A free spirit who worked as a radio disc
jockey for years as well as a trained thespian and all-around
creative nymph, Rodgers engages us in her story but ultimately the
story is about someone who is going through the painful steps of
grabbing back her life from the angry clutches of cancer. It is not
funny, really. It is sad and scary, and I can't help wondering how
I would react to the book if I (knock on wood) got sick like that.
I would assume that people who actually have cancer might find
comfort in Rodgers's tale --- I just find the fear that, of all the
things I worry about on a regular basis, I should add 'possible
cancer' to my list because it seems to hit so many people who have
no family history of it whatsoever.The
title tips you off to Rodgers's rather flamboyant personality and
thus will give you a heads-up on her writing style as well: part
sitcom-writer with the easy joke, part Borscht Belt comic with an
old one for the aging crowd, part fearful human, part brave and
courageous mom who wants to see her kids grow up. BALD IN THE LAND
OF BIG HAIR has a resounding bravado that makes the story easier to
digest, even among all the references Rodgers makes to what a
crazy, kooky gal she has always been (which sometimes become too
dazzling and show-stoppping for the story she is telling). Joni
Rodgers is, above all else, a survivor and she lets you know
it.