Essays by Virginia Woolf, Audre Lorde, Deryn Rees-Jones, Lieke Marsman, Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Mieke van Zonneveld, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Nadia de Vries, Jameisha Prescod, and Sinéad Gleeson, translations by Sophie Collins
“Strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love, battle, and jealousy among the prime themes of literature.” Virginia Woolf
The editor who came up with the idea for this collection of essays was on to something great. The book opens with Virginia Woolf’s essay On Being Ill and closes with an excerpt from Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals. In between there is an array of contemporary voices depicting what it means to be ill and grappling with the complexities of writing about illness.
I have enjoyed Lieke Marsman’s work in the past (and would recommend The Opposite of a Person if you like the sound of a book that is eco-poetry/essay/novel rolled into one). Her essay How Are You Feeling? blends the reality of cancer diagnosis and the politics of social care with fine clarity.
Lucia Osborne-Crowley examines the absurdity of the UK government embracing the idea of herd immunity at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Who Do We Not Save?. I am writing this review as the Covid inquiry is ongoing in the UK and the evidence that shows this question was being asked by the government is being revealed. It’s important that this approach is interrogated.
I was in complete awe that Jameisha Prescod managed to explain in a mere six pages so much of what I wish everyone understood about chronic illness. I feel I now have a place to send people to if they want to start somewhere on the topic. The title in itself is something I’ll be repeating: Believing Your Pain As Radical Self-Care.
If you’ve been looking for an entry point into discourse on illness and disability, I think this would be a good place to start. It doesn’t cushion anything and I like the mixture of classic writing with topical essays. And for those who have read more on the subject, On Being Ill offers an interesting blend of discussion on cancer and chronic illness, showing how the two co-exist. I find it’s rare to encounter both in the same book since the narratives tend to be quite different.
Have you read any more work by the authors in this collection? If so, let me know! I’d like to read more from them, so any pointers on where to start would be welcome.
Tori Pearmain 