Synopses & Reviews
While Eleanor Clift cared for her husband, journalist Tom Brazaitis, through the last two weeks of his life, the nation watched a very different death play out as Terri Schiavo entered her final days. In the commonalities and contradictions between these events, Clift probes the underlying questions: How should we handle the decisions surrounding a loved ones death? What if that loved one did notor cannotspeak to us about these issues?
Synopsis
What has become known as the Schiavo affair-the death of a brain-damaged woman in Florida in 2005, and the controversy that surrounded it-was a revelatory moment in American society. For the first time, the nation got a clear view of both the fanaticism gripping the religious right and the political power it could bring to bear even when the vast majority of the country disagreed with it. But it was also a turning point: a moment when America seemed to glimpse a dangerous radicalism, and began to pull back. Eleanor Clift witnessed this event from a unique vantage point. At the same time that Schiavo was dying in her Florida hospice, Clift's husband, Tom Brazaitis, was dying of cancer at home; the two passed away within a day of each other. Two Weeks of Life alternates between these two stories to provide a moving commentary on how we deal, or fail to deal, with dying in modern America.
Synopsis
"Newsweek" contributing editor Clift tackles one of the most important--and divisive--issues facing the nation: how Americans deal, or fail to deal, with dying. Clift provides a very personal narrative as she alternates between the much-publicized death of Terri Schiavo and that of her own husband.
About the Author
Eleanor Clift is a contributing editor for
Newsweek and a regular panelist on the nationally syndicated show
The McLaughlin Group. She lives in Washington, D.C.
www.EleanorClift.com