Wait Time: A Memoir of Cancer

by Kenneth Sherman

When poet and essayist Kenneth Sherman was diagnosed with cancer, he began keeping a notebook of observations that blossomed into this powerful memoir. With incisive and evocative language, Sherman presents a clear-eyed view of what the cancer patient feels and thinks. His narrative voice is personal but not confessional, practical but not cold, thoughtful and searching but not self-pitying or self-absorbed.
The author s wait time for surgery on a malignant tumour was exceptionally long and riddled with bureaucratic bumbling; thus he asks our health-care providers and administrators if our system cannot be made efficient and more humane. While he is honest about what is good and bad in our system, he is not stridently political or given to directing blame. His narrative is interwoven with engaging ruminations on the meaning of illness in society, and is peppered with references to other writers thoughts on the subject. A widely published poet, Sherman helps the reader understand the deep connection between disease and creativity the ways in which we write out of our suffering. "Wait Time" will be of special interest to anyone facing a serious illness as well as to health-care providers, social workers, and psychologists working in the field. Its thoughtful observations on health, life priorities, time, and mortality will make it of interest to all readers. "

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2015

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kenneth Sherman's "Wait Time" is essentially the journal the Toronto poet kept from the day he had a routine physical that wasn't routine. Sherman's is the modern Canadian equivalent of Lorde's "The Cancer Journals." I'm sorry we'll never see a panel with two poets because I'm sure they'd have gotten on famously and their books are an excellent complement to each other. Of course, Sherman doesn't have to contemplate loosing his breasts, but in very Canadian terms he does have to contemplate wait times.
Politicians, policy wonks and hospital administrators should read "Wait Time" for some exceptional insights into specialist and surgical wait times in Canada. Torontonians may be interested to read some of the history of Princess Margaret Hospital.
For poets, lovers of poetry, and literature Sherman has sprinkled his wait and consequent recovery with nuggets that are now filling my TBR-list, as well as poems he wrote and reflections based on his experience as a poet.
This is an excellent short memoir. Check it out!

[Sara Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been reading a lot of cancer memoirs lately, and this was good but not my favourite. I did not think it was necessary for the N word to be written in print by a white man, and there were a few moments that made me cringe a little at things said. But being from the Toronto area myself, though having done my chemo treatment in a different country and stem cell transplant in Kingston, ON, it was interesting reading about PMH and how things go in Toronto at the time of writing. I appreciate reading his perspective on it all.