Book Review: The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde
Reviewed by Mia Mingus

The Cancer Journals has changed me and it continues to change me everytime I read it. I have gone back time and again to Lorde's writing, always being inspired by her fearless honesty and moved by her ability to craft feeling and idea into words.

In this collection of essays and journal enteries, Lorde chronicles her experiences with breast cancer and the realization of her own mortality and death. Through the cancer, Lorde's activism finds a sense of urgency, a new working relationship with fear, and a clearer focus, because death may come at any time.

The Cancer Journals is for everyone who lives with cancer, everyone who lives with a disability -- indeed, everyone, for we are all growing older everyday. For those who live with the reality of oppression, whatever form it may take. In short, it is for everyone who lives, who exists, in a world where they are constantly in battle with themselves and the world. It will make you think and feel and it will inspire and move you--it will challenge you to exist as a better person.

Buy The Cancer Journals at Atlanta's feminist bookstore: Charis Books & More, 1189 Euclid Avenue.