“Love me, the sick person in the prime of their life says, trying to look as if they will grow strong again, for what I have done before, and also what I might do, and also love me for the present in which I am eternally trapped, uncertain of my exact attachment to time.”

I loooooved this book and the writing style. (May I please write as sharply someday?) It’s sort of Didion x Machado but all Boyer!! There were moments I needed the style to be… less…, but who am I to request the raw writing be made smaller?

If cancer has ever entered your life (or even if it has yet to do so) personally, professionally, or metaphysically, I would suggest picking The Undying up! All the passages were just so pithy and unapologetically clueless/profound. ZAM

Reading The Undying felt in some ways like my own experience with cancer. In short, it was a cerebral, abstract and often painfully triggering roller coaster; which was, perhaps, Boyer’s intent. At times, her writing and philosophical knowledge was impressive, as was her ability to highlight parts of the breast cancer experience in ways that were all too familiar. However, other moments of reading had me frantically repeating one of my own cancer mantras: that’s not my story. Boyer’s experience is that of an American single parent with triple negative breast cancer - not one that I can relate to in its entirety.

In the end, much like the focus of the book’s second to last chapter, I felt exhausted and ready to be done with Boyer’s cancer recollections. This, of course, demonstrates the brilliance of her writing - the cancer experience is utterly exhausting, and once treatment is over, one simply wants to get back to some semblance of a life.

Unfortunately, for a metastatic cancer thriver, reading a cancer memoir is always risky for the impact it might have on a carefully constructed methodology for survival, and so, The Undying was definitely not for me. If you are looking for a hope-inducing cancer memoir, I would encourage you to look elsewhere; but it may still be of value for those immersed in the depressing and morbid vulnerability of triple negative breast cancer, ultimately helping them feel a bit less alone.

Thank you, NetGalley for the advance reader copy, and thank you, Anne for sharing your knowledge and your talent.

This book beautifully lays out exactly what it’s like to be a young person with breast cancer. Reading this really helped me to reflect on my own breast cancer from 9 years ago. I think this will become a yearly read for me.

It won the Pulitzer Prize, I don't think I could even write a review that would do justice to describe this beautiful piece of poetry. Hard to listen to at times, but only because of the heavy content.

I loved this book...it’s unlike anything I’ve ever thought or read about illness, particularly cancer. Some of it was a bit over my head, esoteric-wise, but, overall well worth a read, particularly if you are or spend time with people who are ill.

One of the most beautifully written books I've ever read.

'(...) o cierpieniu można powiedzieć w najlepszym razie tyle , że jest "po nic". O poezji też mówi się, że jest "po nic"'
Bardzo osobista oraz intymna podróż autorki przez raka piersi. Podróży pełnej cierpienia, bólu, beznadziejni, samotności i smutku. Podróży paradoksalnej, bo jak sama pisze, gdy się ma raka żaden wybór zdaje się nie być dostatecznie dobry i pewny.
Jestem poruszona tą powieścią, nie tylko że względu na poruszany problem raka piersi, do którego główną przesłanką jest bycie kobietą, ale też sposób przekazu i świetne ukazanie różnych aspektów funkcjonowania chorego. Boyer pokazuje nam raka jako produkt marketingowy, farmaceutyczne źródło zysków, obiekt statystyk i wreszcie osobistą walkę, którą bez względu na otaczający ludzi - zawsze toczy się samemu.
Pozycja obowiązkowa dla KAŻDEJ kobiety.

I am grateful for this book, a gut-wrenching and honest account of the cancer industrial complex. It takes a poet to reveal truth.