3.0
A Whole New Life
ByPublisher Description
Reynolds Price has long been one of America’s most acclaimed and accomplished men of letters—the author of novels, stories, poems, essays, plays, and now an unforgettable memoir about illness and healing in this more personal story, a narrative as intimate and compelling as any work of the imagination.
In 1984, a large cancer was discovered in Reynold Price’s spinal cord (“The tumor was pencil-thick and gray-colored, ten inches long from my neck-hair downward”). Here, for the first time, Price recounts without self-pity what became a long struggle to withstand and recover from this appalling, if all too common, affliction. He charts the first puzzling symptoms; the urgent surgery that failed to remove the growth and the radiation that temporarily arrested it (but hurried his loss of control of his lower body); the occasionally comic trials of rehab; the steady rise of severe pain and reliance on drugs; two further radical surgeries; the sustaining force of a certain religious vision; an eventual discovery of help from biofeedback and hypnosis; and the miraculous return of his powers as a writer in a new, active life.
Beyond the particulars of pain and mortal illness, larger concerns surface here—a determination to get on with the human interaction that is so much a part of this writer's much-loved work, the gratitude he feels toward kin and friends and some (though by no means all) doctors, the return to his prolific work, his own resilience, and the “now appalling, now astonishing grace of God.”
A Whole New Life is a memoir of hope and courage, a vivid reflection on illness and identity, and a deeply human narrative about overcoming chronic illness. It speaks to finding strength in illness, explores disability and personal growth, and ultimately charts a path toward spiritual awakening.
This inspirational work is a beacon for anyone confronting serious illness or supporting a loved one who is. With honesty, grace, and clarity, Price offers an inspirational story of transformation that restores faith in the enduring power of the human spirit.
In 1984, a large cancer was discovered in Reynold Price’s spinal cord (“The tumor was pencil-thick and gray-colored, ten inches long from my neck-hair downward”). Here, for the first time, Price recounts without self-pity what became a long struggle to withstand and recover from this appalling, if all too common, affliction. He charts the first puzzling symptoms; the urgent surgery that failed to remove the growth and the radiation that temporarily arrested it (but hurried his loss of control of his lower body); the occasionally comic trials of rehab; the steady rise of severe pain and reliance on drugs; two further radical surgeries; the sustaining force of a certain religious vision; an eventual discovery of help from biofeedback and hypnosis; and the miraculous return of his powers as a writer in a new, active life.
Beyond the particulars of pain and mortal illness, larger concerns surface here—a determination to get on with the human interaction that is so much a part of this writer's much-loved work, the gratitude he feels toward kin and friends and some (though by no means all) doctors, the return to his prolific work, his own resilience, and the “now appalling, now astonishing grace of God.”
A Whole New Life is a memoir of hope and courage, a vivid reflection on illness and identity, and a deeply human narrative about overcoming chronic illness. It speaks to finding strength in illness, explores disability and personal growth, and ultimately charts a path toward spiritual awakening.
This inspirational work is a beacon for anyone confronting serious illness or supporting a loved one who is. With honesty, grace, and clarity, Price offers an inspirational story of transformation that restores faith in the enduring power of the human spirit.
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About Reynolds Price
Reynolds Price (1933–2011) was born in Macon, North Carolina. Educated at Duke University and, as a Rhodes Scholar, at Merton College, Oxford University, he taught at Duke beginning in 1958 and was the James B. Duke Professor of English at the time of his death. His first short stories, and many later ones, are published in his Collected Stories. A Long and Happy Life was published in 1962 and won the William Faulkner Award for a best first novel. Kate Vaiden was published in 1986 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Good Priest's Son in 2005 was his fourteenth novel. Among his thirty-seven volumes are further collections of fiction, poetry, plays, essays, and translations. Price is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his work has been translated into seventeen languages.
Other books by Reynolds Price
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