My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations.

[nausicaa83]

What have I done for the past three hours? Reading The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. From start to finish.

This is it, this is the one book about cancer, and there won't ever be another one about it, because this is THE book.

I've been, I am, every character in this book. The cancer patient, the survivor, the family member, the kid in the hospital playground, the one changing the sheets, the one searching frantically for the loved one's last written pages. I've done the jokes, I've heard the jokes, I've been the one sitting in the first row at funerals despising the not-friends talking.

I just checked, it's just 313 pages, and yet everything is there. Everything I've ever experienced all those years with cancer being the new member of the family, the one that was me and not me even when it wasn't in my body, and John Green managed to record it all and put it on the written page.

There are two things I need to do now: buy two copies of this book, one for my aunt and one for my therapist. And then eat because I kinda have skipped lunch and I'm maybe having sort of a little panic attack. But I really, really needed this book in a way I can't possibly explain.

Comments

[tati81.livejournal.com]

Come hai scoperto questo libro?

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

E' un New York Times bestseller, li tengo d'occhio perchè ci sono delle vere perle. E l'autore fa dei videoblog col fratello su youtube che mi piacciono molto!

[florealpolla.livejournal.com]

Mi hai fatto venire voglia di leggerlo... ^^;

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Guarda, sono appena rientrata da una corsa alla Feltrinelli per comprarne una copia alla mia terapista.

Per chi come noi ha speso una gran fetta di vita tra ospedali e cliniche direi che sia una lettura imprescindibile!

[stardust-made.livejournal.com]

*hugs tight* I'm so glad you found this book. And I am so grateful for the existence of written word, because there are fewer more powerful ways to connect and understand, to integrate and be than those provided by what we could say to each other in writing. For all my eloquence I always find myself terribly inadequate when I try to express the heartfelt...everything that goes on in me whenever I think of your experiences—all those that you've mentioned in this post and undoubtedly so many that would never be articulated, yet somehow I imagine them all there. So again, I'm very grateful for this book, for the way it's managed to speak to you.♥

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

HUG!

There were so many, so many things I loved in this book. So many things I've experienced and that I could never explain in such a simple, cristalline way like John Green did.

In a scene early in the book, the main character, Hazel, who has a terminal form of cancer, is in a support group. One girl, whose cancer is in remission, stands up and says something along the lines of "I admire Hazel for her strength, I wish I had her strength" and Hazel says "tell you what, I'll give you my strength if I can have your remission". I literally dropped the book to cheer out loud. Hazel apologizes, obviously, because she knows what the other girl meant, but she isn't sorry for telling her off. One of the things I hate is when they tell me, and people like me, that they admire our strength. As if there was a choice. Or as if they were thinking, and they obviously are, "I'd rather be dead than be you". I wish I could answer "well, fuck you too" but I try to be polite.

Or a huge part of the book is about the fact that when someone dies of cancer, their whole life seems to be only about the cancer. All the obituaries are about their fight against the disease. But a cancer patient is a person, is a sum of many things, and yet we all get reduced to our illness.

It's just, wow, incredible. I just came back from buying a copy for my therapist, because I'm going to talk about this book A LOT in our future sessions.

[space-oddity-75.livejournal.com]

A therapeutic book is a book that says the things you've always wanted to say and never got round to put to paper, although you wish you'd written them yourself. When the taboo of the illness is overcome and only the reality of the experience remains, raw and strong and oh-so-very-there, only then can a person come to terms with how much a life-changing experience this has been.

I don't know whether I'm past the taboo stage yet, having had little first-hand experience with this illness (my grandma and a few relatives died of cancer, but I was too young to understand all the implications), so I think I'm probably going to buy and read this book, in order to be able to understand a bit more about this topic and avoid being the stupid one who talks about stuff she doesn't know when I'm around people who have dealt or are dealing with it.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm sure this book will make a very interesting read.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Letto questo libro saprai più o meno tutto quello che c'è da sapere sull'argomento. Vorrei potermi materializzare da John Green, abbracciarlo forte e forte e ringraziarlo di persona.

[sunshine1112.livejournal.com]

To me that is the reason for art: a painting, a book, a song: to express an emotion that they feel and somebody else reads etc.. and understands they are not alone. I'm so glad you found something that you connect with so deeply.

I love the fault in our stars so much. I haven't been affected by cancer (strokes and dementia go in my family) but i was still in tears throughout the book.

I saw john Green in London for his Fault in our stars tour.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

The fact is, HE GETS IT. He knows. I took notes of things I have to tell my therapist, it was incredible.

[opaljade.livejournal.com]

I bought that book for my daughter and she loved it. And now, thanks to you, I'm going to read it as well. Sounds like it might be therapeutic (I have a son with a serious illness).

Thanks for the rec and I'm glad to hear the book was helpful.

*hugs*

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

It helped a lot! Even if intellectually I know there are thousands of people out there with the same problems, it's easy to feel alone, and this book made me feel the exact opposite.

I can't wait to give it to my aunt too!

[capracotta.livejournal.com]

Ti abbraccio e ti ringrazio per il consiglio di lettura.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Se vuoi leggerlo in italiano si chiama Colpa Delle Stelle. Ho sfogliato qualche pagina, la traduzione sembra ottima.