Memoir of a Debulked Woman
Enduring Ovarian Cancer
9 July 2013
Description
A 2012 New York Times Book Review Notable Book
"Staggering, searing…Ms. Gubar deserves the highest admiration for her bravery and honesty." —New York Times
Ovarian cancer remains an incurable disease for most of those diagnosed, even those lucky enough to find caring and skilled physicians. Memoir of a Debulked Woman is both a polemic against the ineffectual and injurious medical responses to which thousands of women are subjected and a meditation on the gifts of companionship, art, and literature that sustain people in need.
Reviews
"Delivered in a voice that is intelligent, feminist and devastatingly honest… Unlike many accounts of life with cancer, it is neither relentlessly upbeat nor melodramatic. Instead, it is straightforward, realistic and incredibly brave." — New York Times Book Review
"In this brave, honest book, Gubar grapples with the reality and symbolism of cancer. …[H]er tone is intimate, unsentimental, and darkly funny. . . . Intimate, unsentimental, and darkly funny . . . a moving reminder of ‘how greedy for existence we are.’" — Boston Globe
"Despite her suffering, [Gubar] infuses her book with profound gratitude for family, friends, and colleagues." — The New Yorker
"An exquisitely written look at the decisions and compromises people make for a little more time on earth." — Wall Street Journal
"Starred review. True to her no-nonsense feminist roots, Gubar pulls no punches.... This raw narrative is as close to therapy and is written as close to the bone as one is likely to find among cancer memoirs. Even so, there is a certain beauty that only someone of Gubar’s prodigious abilities can impart to such a painful experience." — Booklist
"An extraordinary testament to the human spirit—at least, to Susan Gubar’s indomitable spirit—a rare mixture of honesty, eloquence, humor, and passionate curiosity about the truth.... The ‘voice’ is so utterly intimate, the reader will find herself, or himself, drawn into sharing the author’s deepest thoughts, fears, and wishes. The memoir is a treasure-chest of wonderful, uncommon cultural allusions and lines of poetry; the reader feels honored to be in the presence of a first-rate, restless mind, being taken to a place of devastating clarity. There is pathos here, but not self-pity; amid the tragic and sorrowful, sudden flashes of wit." — Joyce Carol Oates
"Not just a grueling memoir of facing a deadly disease but a powerful exposé of the failure of medical science to find better ways to detect and treat it." — Kirkus Reviews
"Gubar’s passionate and brave polemic is critical reading for anyone concerned with the state of women’s health care in America." — Publishers Weekly
Awards
Commended — New York Times Notable Selection, 2012
Also By: Susan Gubar 
Still Mad: American Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination
Paperback, 2022
A brilliant, sweeping history of the contemporary women’s movement told through the lives and works of the literary women who shaped it
Still Mad: American Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination
Hardback, 2021
A brilliant, sweeping history of the contemporary women’s movement told through the lives and works of the literary women who shaped it.
Still Mad: American Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination
E Book, 2021
A brilliant, sweeping history of the contemporary women’s movement told through the lives and works of the literary women who shaped it.
Late-Life Love: A Memoir
Paperback, 2020
During a difficult year, acclaimed writer Susan Gubar celebrates her lasting partnership and the reciprocity of lovers in later life.
Late-Life Love: A Memoir
E Book, 2018
“Winning [and] intelligent. . . . [An] impressive, often heartening addition to the literature of aging.” — Heller McAlpin, Wall Street Journal
