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'From poet and bestselling novelist Peter Goldsworthy, this darkly funny, bittersweet memoir offers lessons in how to live life in the shadow of an incurable illness.
''My first stray thought- cancer is a gift. I'm lucky to have it. What priceless material for a doctor-writer.'
'What lessons might cancer teach him before it finishes him off? Peter Goldsworthy asks, obliquely.
'A GP of forty years' practice, as well as one of Australia's most awarded and celebrated writers, Goldsworthy ('Doctor Pete' to his patients) brings his characteristic black humour and storytelling power to the tale of his own cancer journey.
'Accidentally diagnosed after a scan of his dicky knee, he was thrown into a world that he knew only too well from the other side- a world that soon shrank to hospital visits, sleepless and hyped-up nights on dexamethasone and life-saving chemotherapy.
'Never one to waste a story, Peter intersperses his own experience with odd and astonishing case stories of patients and literary friends who have trodden the same path- both cautionary tales and exemplary tales, sometimes laugh-out-loud, sometimes deeply moving, that intersect with, or refract, his own travels through denial, acceptance, treatment and survival.
'Darkly funny, and filled with growing love and wonder, The Cancer Finishing School offers lessons in how to live life in the shadow of an incurable illness.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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It Might Be … P Is for Peter, Physician, Patient, Poet
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 463 2024; (p. 20-21)
— Review of The Cancer Finishing School : Lessons in Laughter, Love and Resilience 2024 single work autobiography 'That doctors aren’t supposed to become incurably ill is something their patients might say, and about as useless as declaring that dentists are forbidden from contracting toothache or that undertakers should live forever – seeing other people out, not themselves.' (Introduction) -
Bold’, ‘extremely Fun’, ‘luminously Written’ : The Best Australian Books Out in March
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 6 March 2024;
— Review of 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem 2024 selected work poetry ; The Silver River 2024 single work autobiography ; One Another 2024 single work novel ; Appreciation 2024 single work novel ; Loving My Lying, Dying, Cheating Husband 2024 single work autobiography ; Servo : Tales from the Graveyard Shift 2024 single work autobiography ; The Cancer Finishing School : Lessons in Laughter, Love and Resilience 2024 single work autobiography ; Thanks for Having Me 2024 single work novel ; Lead Us Not 2024 single work novel ; Always Will Be : Stories of Goori Sovereignty from the Futures of the Tweed 2024 selected work short story -
In His Entertaining Cancer Memoir, Peter Goldsworthy Explores the ‘necessary Narcissism’ of Illness
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 5 March 2024;
— Review of The Cancer Finishing School : Lessons in Laughter, Love and Resilience 2024 single work autobiography'Illness memoir is based on a tension between the general and the particular. The writer presents (to use a medical term) as both representing all sufferers of a particular malady – in this case, myeloma – and a unique individual experiencing a specific, unrepeatable event. Peter Goldsworthy, who is both a GP and a prize-winning writer, is better equipped than most to engage with this tension.' (Introduction)
-
In His Entertaining Cancer Memoir, Peter Goldsworthy Explores the ‘necessary Narcissism’ of Illness
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 5 March 2024;
— Review of The Cancer Finishing School : Lessons in Laughter, Love and Resilience 2024 single work autobiography'Illness memoir is based on a tension between the general and the particular. The writer presents (to use a medical term) as both representing all sufferers of a particular malady – in this case, myeloma – and a unique individual experiencing a specific, unrepeatable event. Peter Goldsworthy, who is both a GP and a prize-winning writer, is better equipped than most to engage with this tension.' (Introduction)
-
Bold’, ‘extremely Fun’, ‘luminously Written’ : The Best Australian Books Out in March
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 6 March 2024;
— Review of 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem 2024 selected work poetry ; The Silver River 2024 single work autobiography ; One Another 2024 single work novel ; Appreciation 2024 single work novel ; Loving My Lying, Dying, Cheating Husband 2024 single work autobiography ; Servo : Tales from the Graveyard Shift 2024 single work autobiography ; The Cancer Finishing School : Lessons in Laughter, Love and Resilience 2024 single work autobiography ; Thanks for Having Me 2024 single work novel ; Lead Us Not 2024 single work novel ; Always Will Be : Stories of Goori Sovereignty from the Futures of the Tweed 2024 selected work short story -
It Might Be … P Is for Peter, Physician, Patient, Poet
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 463 2024; (p. 20-21)
— Review of The Cancer Finishing School : Lessons in Laughter, Love and Resilience 2024 single work autobiography 'That doctors aren’t supposed to become incurably ill is something their patients might say, and about as useless as declaring that dentists are forbidden from contracting toothache or that undertakers should live forever – seeing other people out, not themselves.' (Introduction)