This was quite different from other "medical memoirs" I'd read; it was a hard-hitting account of the author's journey through treatment for breast cancer. One of the biggest takeaways I got from the book was how extremely glad I am to live in the UK and not the US, where we have 1) the wonderful NHS and 2) far more sympathetic working conditions that allow for paid sick leave / statutory sick pay during treatment. What a very tough time she had; being forcibly discharged from hospital on the same day as having a double mastectomy - this is surely unthinkable in any civilised country. Harrowing but ultimately hopeful and uplifting.

The Undying by Anne Boyer was a beautifully written book which gave a true insight into what one experiences when they are being treated for breast cancer.

I decided to read the book as I have worked within the health space for a number of years, and wanted to gain a true insight into what a person with cancer felt, and how they navigated their care and emotions.

Difficult to read in parts but given the subject matter this is understandable, but also due to the authors style.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a chronically ill disabled person, The Undying appealed to me incredibly. Broad in its scope and often academic in nature, Boyler takes us by the hand through illness in the modern day, leading the long way round through art, creativity and literature. So much of this was incredibly relatable, and so much was sharply observed and carefully considered. Overall a key read for anyone in or surrounding the chronic illness community

The reason this book wasn’t a ‘DNF’ was because of guilt. That guilt arose because this was a personal story about the authors cancer diagnosis, treatment and subsequent struggles. I guess finishing the book felt like the very least I could do.

As a disclaimer, the subject of cancer in books, fictional or otherwise, doesn’t put me off.

Cancer has impacted my life in multiple ways from friends who have lost parents to a variety of differing cancers, to several of my aunts receiving treatment for breast cancer and even my own cervical cancer diagnosis and treatment which I am open and honest about. Spoiler alert: ‘twas shit.

In a strange turn of events I’ve become a bit of a ‘grim reader’ because I want to hear about people’s experiences with their own cancer journeys. Cancer is a lonely time and the Psychology graduate within me would chalk it up to a desperate need for connection. That was my rationale for requesting The Undying in the first place which makes me feel all kinds of horrid for what I’m about to say.

Guilt made me read on when boredom wanted me to stop.

First of all, no one’s cancer journey is boring and I do want to commend the author on her bravery for writing an entire book about it. There was a section when she described the treatment she received had made her fingernails fall off and I felt that as a slice of real life horror.

That was the only bit I remember because it was the only section where she dropped the poetic metaphors and spoke in more human language.

I think I’m going to have to say that it all comes down to the style in which I prefer to read autobiographical stories. To be fair to the writer - she is a poet and so it makes sense that her language follows suit. Unfortunately it made it hard to read in novel form and was harder still to relate to her experiences because everything was described in overwrought, over lyrical turns of phrase.

We all have the potential for a dramatic flare (well, I do) but throughout the text the writer compares herself and her cancer to Faust, the Exodus Bible verse, Marx, Emily Dickinson, a stream of consciousness and a variety of Philosophers.

An example of the language and confusing syntax present from beginning to end is as follows:-

I was always starving for experience, not its cessation, and if the experience of thought was the only experience my body could give me beyond the one of pain, opening myself to wild, deathly thinking had to be allowed. Don’t try to make me, I warned my friends in a set of emailed instructions, stop thinking about death.

One occasional sentence like this would be bearable but this was the whole book. If I ‘Gerryised’ the above sentences I would rephrase it as: I was in so much pain that, unable to move, all I could manage was to think. If that was the one thing I was able to do then I would keep on doing it. I emailed my friends and warned them - don’t try to stop me from thinking about death.

But then I’m not a poet or published writer so what do I know and as I so ‘eloquently’ described one of my post surgery experiences as being akin to what you would find on Dexter’s (the TV serial killer) tarp, I guess I can’t really talk.

This book is for someone and will reach a lot of someone’s in the way they need - I am just not that audience.

Edited to say: As I was just about to hit ‘post’ on this I discovered this book had won a Pulitzer Prize 2020 for General Nonfiction. Make of you will my low rating then.

Well written but an incredibly tough read. had to put it down and pick it up a few times, as a freind was going through a similar medical issue.

Like other reviewers I had difficulties reading The Undying by Anne Boyer because of all the letters missing from words which was a shame. It is about the experience of serious illness in general and breast cancer in particular.

(Going to get one technical complaint out of the way now - the ARC of this, which is the version I had and finally got to - was missing the characters “Th” and “f next to any thin alphabet letter”, which made the actual act of reading this extremely difficult. You can infer in most cases what the missing letters are but not always, so the guessing interrupted what was otherwise a really smooth reading process.)

The book itself is a blunt, in the trenches recapping of Boyer’s experience with cancer. You get to feel the very real anger of a breast cancer patient who is expected to project a certain persona/attitude versus the pinkwashing of Komen, and the loneliness of going through this as a single mother (even though your friends are there for you as much as possible). She also draws parallels between cancer as experienced by other writers (Sontag, Lourde among others).

I’m actually going to purchase this at some point, whenever the paperback comes out, because I want to see this in actually polished form, and it feels like it would hold up on the reread.

I found this book difficult to read, Obviously because of the subject matter, and its poignancy, but also because the writing style demands the reader's intense concentration. Whilst I appreciated the themes and the historic lives explored, and the author's own experience., I can't offer an opinion beyond this, and I have rated it accordingly.,

Well written but tough to read. The subject is upsetting but it is a wonderful story. Almost like poetry. It takes you through her story and other peoples stories. It is more a memoir. Definitely recommend

This is an extremely cerebral work—very literary, very allusive—in which the author, a poet, philosophically and elliptically considers her breast cancer. I’m afraid I found it very hard going. I believe I could have pushed through, but I made the decision that I simply wasn’t committed enough to make the effort. I did not finish the book.

This is not an easy book to read - nor an easy book to review. It is one woman’s experience of a cancer journey after a devastating breast cancer diagnosis and it is honest, raw and heartbreaking. It is also fascinating, beautifully written and would be useful for anyone who has family or friends going through the experience.

Ms Boyer is a poet and academic and the language is considered and at times overly dramatic but who am I to say to the author what is the best way to describe her illness? She covers capitalism, society, impact on partners and family/friends and the sheer drudge of being ill.

This is a difficult book but it needs to be written and should be read by anyone wondering about the trauma, the organisation, the time stolen by cancer. I was given a free copy of the book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Having had cancer myself (not breast cancer), i was interested in reading this book. I don't think i could add much more to what already has been said, but will say it's worth a read.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review, which i have voluntarily given.

(Waiting for Amazon to publish my review).

The writing is at times beautiful, but at times hard to read -- both due to the style, and the topic. Of course any book about cancer isn't going to be an easy read, but i felt the writing was a little too dense for me in places.

It looks at cancer from a patient and treatment perspective, but also at the wider 'business' of cancer, with eye-opening insight into the USA's complex health system. I found the various stories compelling, finding out how and why people make the decisions they do regarding their treatment, and how their wider lives were impacted by cancer.

The memoir-style sections were a tough read. It took me a while to get through the book as I felt like I needed breaks from it, but I did keep coming back to it. It's definitely worth dipping in to, but not 'reading for pleasure' as such.

The Undying is an interesting book that blends memoir with an exploration of what it is to be a patient, and how the cancer industry is run.

I wanted to read this book because I’m drawn to books about illness and also having had loved ones die of cancer this book sounded like a really powerful read. I found this a hard book to read but it’s a fascinating read at the same time.

Anne Boyer was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was just 41 years old. She was a single mother at the time with no financial safety net so faced a very uncertain future. I don’t know a huge amount about health-care in America (I live in the UK) but I got such a real sense of how difficult navigating cancer-care there is.

Boyer also references the history of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment and looks at where we are now. It was horrifying to read of the studies that show doctors are, in some cases, over-diagnosing cancer. I knew that sometimes the protocol can be over-zealous but it seems there are times when what is happening is more than that.

I was interested to read Boyer’s thoughts around the evolution of the pink ribbon and breast cancer. Boyer gives the history of the ribbon, which I didn’t know (although I thought I did) and how it’s now being monopolised and seems to her to make breast cancer seem a light and fluffy thing rather than a very serious illness. I can understand her thoughts and feelings, especially when some places use the pink ribbon to sell things but only give the tiniest percentage of profits to charity.

‘Every person with a body should be given a guide to dying as soon as they are born.’

The parts of the book that most spoke to me though are about the language we use around cancer and I definitely echo Boyer’s thoughts. I can’t stand the phrase ‘lost the battle’, people I love have fought so hard to live and still died but it wasn’t for want of trying. Also, the idea that people have to be positive because it gives a better outcome which is not true. I’m a firm believer in being positive because it makes life easier if you can find light in the tunnel but I also believe that in the wake of a devastating diagnosis people have to be allowed to express all of their feelings. Suppressing them in order to appear positive is all about making it easier for the people around the patient and not for the patient themselves.

‘Cancer kills people, as does treatment, as does lack of treatment, and what anyone feels or believes has nothing to do with it. I could hold every right idea, exhibit every virtue, do every good deed, and follow every institutional command and still die of cancer, or I could believe and do every wrong thing and still live.’

Boyer looks at all aspects of cancer – from how it affected her personally to how other patients differ in their opinion and approach, to the history of the disease and how it’s been viewed over the years, to how we view the patient. I cared for mum when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I found this book such a cathartic reading experience. So much of how I felt seeing how so-called friends stopped calling, and how family distanced themselves reflects how it was for my mum. Boyer is so honest about the things that hurt and infuriate and frustrate during the process of treatment and surgery. I felt like I had an even greater insight into what it is to face this disease after I finished this book.

I found The Undying to be a fascinating book and the writing is stunning so I’d absolutely recommend it but be mindful that it’s a tough read at times due to the nature of the subject matter. It’s one of those books that perhaps needs to find readers at the right moment for them.

I found this really hard to follow due to the errors, missing words and gaps but from what I did manage to read it is a good memoir type read and I would probably buy it when it is released

Part memoir, part essay on the fact of cancer and the treatment of it, this book is not an easy read. Not just because of its subject matter, which is harrowing, but because the writing itself is often dense and multi-layered. There is anger here, and despair, and there are sections that I found very compelling, but others where I felt somewhat lost.

As other reviewers have already noted it is difficult to read this book because of the formatting with missing letters etc so that you have to guess what the words are. The language in places is also remarkably difficult to follow and strange, so much so, that I couldn't understand it.

Unfortunately, formatting issues (missing letters etc.) made this book unreadable and so I was unable to finish it.
I enjoyed what I was able to decipher. It's an honest review of life with cancer and all that comes with it. I wish I was able to finish the book as it is a subject close to me and her story sounds fascinating.

It feels impossible to talk about this beautiful book without lapsing into cliches that ultimately do it a disservice. Abundant, spare, beautiful, appalling, rigorously intelligent and moral. One of the very best things I've read all year, and an essential addition to the timeless canon of writing around illness and mortality as well as a searing, incandescent deconstruction of the healthcare crisis under late capitalism.

I wanted to love this so much, but apart from the fact that formatting issues made it virtually unreadable, omitting 'th', 'ff', and other letter combinations, so I had to concentrate hard to fill in the blanks, the text itself was incredibly dense. I might have been able to cope had the prose been more approachable, but unfortunately, it wasn't.

It's hard giving a book which is about such a personal, difficult subject a poor review and it really goes against the grain, but I just can't see who this book would appeal to, even with the typos sorted. (Which I presume they will be in the finalised version.)

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.