Sunday, April 12, 2009

Review: Not Yet

Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying - Wayson Choy

Wayson Choy's newest book chronicles his brush with death after a heart attack in 2001. He was kept in a medically-induced coma for four days and spent several months in the hospital afterward. It was a traumatic event that made him think about his life, his family, and himself.
Choy is quite candid in this account of his illness, reporting everything from learning to walk again to becoming aroused during a tissue massage (that part he probably could've skipped). However, the proof is in the details, and the story of his recovery would not have been as poignant or sympathetic had he not bared his soul in this way. We learn of the close, close friends that are his family and the circumstances leading to those same relationships. As the Random House official page reports, "Not Yet is a passionate, sensitive, and beautiful exploration of the importance of family, which in Choy’s case is constituted not through blood but through love. It is also a quiet manifesto for embracing life, not blind to our mortality, but knowing how lucky we are for each day that comes." Highly recommended.

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