Synopses & Reviews
In 1984 a large cancer was discovered in Reynolds Price's spinal cord. Here he 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 fails to remove the growth and radiation that temporarily arrests it; the trials of rehab; the steady rise of severe pain and reliance on drugs; the sustaining force of a certain religious vision; the 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 illness, Price tells of his determination to get on with human interaction, the gratitude he feels toward kin and friends and some (though by no means all) doctors, and the return to his prolific work.
More than the portrait of one brave person in tribulation, A Whole New Life offers honest insight, realistic encouragement, and inspiration to others who suffer the bafflement of catastrophic illness or know someone who does or will.
About the Author
Reynolds Price was born in Macon, North Carolina in 1933. Reared and educated in the public schools of his native state, he earned an A.B.
summa cum laude from Duke University, graduating first in his class. In 1955 he traveled as a Rhodes Scholar to Merton College, Oxford University to study English literature. After three years and the B. Litt. degree he returned to Duke where he continues to teach as James B. Duke Professor of English.
In 1962 his novel A Long and Happy Life appeared. It received the William Faulkner Award for a notable first novel and has never been out of print. Since, he has published more than two dozen books. In 1986, his novel Kate Vaiden received the National Book Critics Circle Award. He also has published volumes of poems, plays, essays, translations from the Bible, and the memoir Clear Pictures; and he has written for the screen, for television, and texts for songs by James Taylor.
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and his books have appeared in sixteen languages.