Grace Period
ISBN: 9780874176858
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / University of Nevada Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Physician and patient; Cancer;

Sacramento journalist and lapsed Catholic, Martin Martinez has seen his once fulfilling life flame out: his son has died of AIDS, his marriage is over, his daughter hates him and his siblings wrote him off after he let their mother die alone. Not to mention, he's diagnosed with prostate cancer shortly after coming a matchstick's distance to self-immolation in his backyard. As urologists and oncologists prod Marty's tender parts and offer conflicting information about treatment, he marries the eminently patient and understanding cancer-survivor physician, Miranda. With her help, Marty accepts that cancer isn't a punishment from God but just a bunch of cells gone wild. He also reconciles with his family, looks again to the church for support and learns the difference between a "grace period" and a cure. Haslam's (Straight White Male) portrait of the community Marty grew up in rings true, but his didactic prose makes this read like a primer on prostate cancer and a thin treatise on problems facing the Catholic Church, though some will find Marty's story-and his uneasy redemption-inspirational. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Gerald Haslam is a professor emertius of English at Sonoma State University and a contributing writer for West , the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine. His book, Straight White Male , won the 2000 Western State Book Award for fiction and was named Book of the Year by Foreword magazine.


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