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?

[florealpolla.livejournal.com]

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

[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.♥

[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.

[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.

[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*

[capracotta.livejournal.com]

Ti abbraccio e ti ringrazio per il consiglio di lettura.