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Life Disrupted: Getting Real About Chronic Illness In Your Twenties And Thirties (2008)

by Laurie Edwards(Favorite Author)

3.74 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0802716490 (ISBN13: 9780802716491)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Walker & Company

review 1: I really wanted to rate this book 5 out of 5 because I did find the author's story of chronic illness engaging and at times inspiring. The second half of the book was quite engaging and dealt with the topics of most interest to me as a chronic pain patient. But I had a problem while reading this book. The biggest issue I had is that I thought it would feature a variety of individuals (more than a handful) in an array of situations (single, divorced, married, married w/ children, etc.) instead only a handful of people's experiences that end up sprinkled throughout the book. There is only one male patient represented in the entire book. Not cool. And mostly happily married couples are featured. That's wonderful and all but since the author did bring up the high divorce rate... more among those dealing w/ chronic illness, why not include a few folks dealing w/ divorce or post-divorce in your book? And the single gal/guys in 20-30s? Not all of us are lucky enough to find Mr. Right or Mrs. Right right away and we have to deal w/ our issues solo or with help (move in w/ friends, relatives, etc.). I honestly thought this would be a nonfiction piece directed at chronic illness patients in their 20-30s and yet age is rarely even mentioned. The author provides her parents as examples of a chronic illness couple (they rock -- they sound awesome! They do!) I just wanted to learn about people in my age range as the title suggests. I think this book wanted to be two things and in the end it's misleading to readers who pick it up. It should have been 1) either a memoir or 2) a collection of stories from people in their 20-30s. With all that said, I give it marks for being well-written. The book is a valuable resource on the topic on chronic illness. It's just that it is in a more memoir form with a few other chronic illness sufferers featured to add depth to the overall chronic experience (?) I honestly don't know. That is my issue w/ the book. That should not be title then. Frustrating! Maybe I am missing something. There is vauable information for those who may pick this up who have just been diagnosed with a chronic illness. Both patients and caregivers can benefit from reading this. It has many wise nuggets of information that help the patient see that she/he is not alone.
review 2: I felt like this book had sort of an identity crisis. It mostly seemed to be a memoir of the author's experience with chronic illnesses that she had since birth but trying to focus on experiences that chronic illnesses affect in young adults. However, it was clear she was trying to make it more of a self-help book hoping to use her experiences to illustrate how to cope with these issues. She also interviewed people with some other illnesses such as cystic fibrosis and fibromyalgia, but these people's experiences were mentioned merely in passing throughout the book. Although she did have some good things to say I had a hard time relating to this book. Most of the people in this book including the author herself had actually been sick since they were kids, which I think give them a different experience than someone like me who actually got sick in her 20's. I feel like for the other people she interviewed she should have had more people like that instead of almost solely people who had been experiencing illness almost their whole lives like she had. less

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