Product Description: Minus One is an account of one man's coming-to-terms with his own mortality and the specter of separating from those he loves. It is a buoyant story of friendship chronicled through the observations of thirty-eight people in an exchange of e-mail. With surprising humor the letters capture the anxiety of good-byes while reflecting the wisdom that graces the ordeal of conscious dying. -------------------- "If Tuesdays with Morrie offers instruction on how to live, then Minus One offers lessons on how to die with dignity. It moves like a locomotive, punches like Ali, yet its message is strangely consoling. This is a powerful story that should be read by everyone - twice." Louis C. Saeger, M.D. author, The Historical Development of Bioenergetic Analysis "I found I couldn't put it down..." [Afterward,] "I sat for some time in silence... This is a remarkable piece of human history and I felt privileged and enriched to have shared it with the people who lived it." John Hinterberger, columnist The Seattle Times "...and my physical reaction to it was powerful. My pulse rate kept going up as I read on. By the time I finished, I was so emotionally ramped up that I had trouble sleeping." Kim Leatham, M.D. "...never read anything like it. I got up from the couch only once - to get a box of Kleenex. Laughed as much as I cried . . . one of the best love stories ever." Carol Gray NPR reporter
Living while dying ^ My wife died a year ago after a 2 year struggle with ovarian cancer. Maggie Thompson and her friends capture the challenge of continuing to live while dying. She catches the intensity of intimacy that comes from caregiving for a loved one facing a painful, ugly death. It is a nightmare experience, but the relationship also has moments of incredible beauty. The assorted writers run the gamut from the lyrically elegiac to the locker-room-and-sports-bar emotional illiteracy suffered by so many American men, the range that one must cope with during such a process. Dying is a process, an experience of life, a foreshortening and intensifying of the journey we all travel every day.
Minus One is also an implicit condemnation of American medicine. It is astonishing how much of the time there seemed to be no on in charge of the dying man's medical care. And when they were in charge, the patient seemed less important than the disease. Even after it was perfectly clear that he could not recover, the medical people carried on making sure that he didn't take enough pain killer to kill him rather than doing all possible to make him comfortable. There is a sharp change once the hospice physician takes charge with the sole mission of keeping him comfortable. The ultimate insult, of course, is that during the illness they had to depend on the financial support of friends, and there is the stated assumption that the widow will, of course, file for bankruptcy.
The system sucks, but the people are fine. Hospice workers are angels--tough angels.
An Important Book ^ This was a wonderful book! I found such beauty in the letters from family and friends and felt encouraged to face my own challenges knowing that people are so willing to reach out in times of need. There is great wisdom & bravery here, as well as humor and tears. "Minus One" is an amazing story of the enduring strength of love. I absolutely loved all the correspondents and felt as if I'd come to know each one. I would really encourage everyone to buy this book and share it with everyone in their lives.
Minus One - a Big Plus ^ Minus One seized me from the opening page and held me in its grip to the powerful conclusion. The experience of reading it was visceral and electrifying. Maggie Thompson gives words to the unthinkable as she documents through corresondence the slow and arduous loss of her husband Richard to cancer. The narrative pulls the reader into the time and space of a condensed life, and the amazing exerience of intensified life and meaning of one persons existence in the context of the dying process. Thompson portrays with exquisite sensitivity the experience of love and attaachement and the ordeal of loss and separation. As a psychotherapist and witness to people confronted with the death of people they love, I see this book as an invaluable guide and support. In describing with searing honesty the day by day personal experience of losing a soul mate, it reveals the capacity to face unimaginable loss yet maintain ones humanity. This book gives a very human response to ultimate questions. How does one let go of life? How does one let go of those they love?
five GOLD stars ^ Explorer's and Carole's words eloquently express my own thoughts and feelings about "Minus One." I could not put it down! I echo one reviewer who said: ". . . never read anything like it. I got up from the couch only once - to get a box of Kleenex. Laughed as much as I cried . . . one of the best love stories ever."
A Moving Account of Living and Dying ^ My rating of a solid four stars should be considered a 4+ for this heartful and oftimes heart-rending story about friendship, loyalty, the power of love and joy of living fully until we die. The book is a chronological compilation of faxed correspondence between friends that can only be described as dear. A fast-reading literary work that conveys the beauty of living through one man's dying. The book deserves a wide readership. I'd recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed "Tuesdays with Morrie" -- and to all lovers of life who will one day also face their own mortality or that of a loved one. We can only hope that we will have such a circle of friends to bid us farewell.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
