At twenty-one, just as she was starting to comprehend the puzzles of adulthood, Sarah Manguso was faced with a wildly unpredictable autoimmune disease that appeared suddenly and tore through her twenties, paralysing her for weeks at a time, programming her first to expect nothing from life and then, furiously, to expect everything. In this captivating story, Manguso recalls her struggle: arduous blood cleansings, collapsed veins, multiple chest catheters, depression, the deaths of friends and strangers, addiction, and, worst of all for a writer, the trite metaphors that accompany prolonged illness. A book of tremendous grace and humour, The Two Kinds of Decay transcends the very notion of what an illness story can and should be.
- ISBN10 0312428448
- ISBN13 9780312428440
- Publish Date 26 May 2009 (first published 27 May 2008)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint St Martin's Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 192
- Language English