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A Whole New Life: An Illness and a Healing
Reynolds Price has long been one of America's most acclaimed and accomplished men of letters -- the author of novels, stories, poems, essays, plays, and a memoir. In A Whole New Life, however, he steps from behind that roster of achievements to present us with a more personal story, a narrative as intimate and compelling as any work of the imagination.
In 1984, a large cancer was discovered in his spinal cord ("The tumor was pencil-thick and gray-colored, ten inches long from my neck-hair downward"). Here, for the first time, Price recounts without self-pity what became a long struggle to withstand and recover from this appalling, if all too common, affliction (one American in three will experience some from of cancer). He charts the first puzzling symptoms; the urgent surgery that fails to remove the growth and the radiation that temporarily arrests it (but hurries his loss of control of his lower body); the occasionally comic trials of rehab; the steady rise of severe pain and reliance on drugs; two further radical surgeries; the sustaining force of a certain religious vision; an eventual discovery of help from biofeedback and hypnosis; and the miraculous return of his powers as a writer in a new, active life.
Beyond the particulars of pain and mortal illness, larger concerns surface here -- a determination to get on with the human interaction that is so much a part of this writer's much-loved work, the gratitude he feels toward kin and friends and some (though by no means all) doctors, the return to his prolific work, and the "now appalling, now astonishing grace of God."
A Whole New Life offers more than the portrait of one brave person in tribulation; it offers honest insight, realistic encouragement and inspiration to others who suffer the bafflement of catastrophic illness or who know someone who does or will.
In 1984, a large cancer was discovered in his spinal cord ("The tumor was pencil-thick and gray-colored, ten inches long from my neck-hair downward"). Here, for the first time, Price recounts without self-pity what became a long struggle to withstand and recover from this appalling, if all too common, affliction (one American in three will experience some from of cancer). He charts the first puzzling symptoms; the urgent surgery that fails to remove the growth and the radiation that temporarily arrests it (but hurries his loss of control of his lower body); the occasionally comic trials of rehab; the steady rise of severe pain and reliance on drugs; two further radical surgeries; the sustaining force of a certain religious vision; an eventual discovery of help from biofeedback and hypnosis; and the miraculous return of his powers as a writer in a new, active life.
Beyond the particulars of pain and mortal illness, larger concerns surface here -- a determination to get on with the human interaction that is so much a part of this writer's much-loved work, the gratitude he feels toward kin and friends and some (though by no means all) doctors, the return to his prolific work, and the "now appalling, now astonishing grace of God."
A Whole New Life offers more than the portrait of one brave person in tribulation; it offers honest insight, realistic encouragement and inspiration to others who suffer the bafflement of catastrophic illness or who know someone who does or will.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
18 people are currently reading
392 people want to read
About the author
Reynolds Price
195 books122 followersReynolds Price was born in Macon, North Carolina in 1933. Educated at Duke University and, as a Rhodes Scholar, at Merton College, Oxford University. He taught at Duke since 1958 and was James B. Duke Professor of English.
His first short stories, and many later ones, are published in his Collected Stories. A Long and Happy Life was published in 1962 and won the William Faulkner Award for a best first novel. Kate Vaiden was published in 1986 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Good Priest's Son in 2005 was his fourteenth novel. Among his thirty-seven volumes are further collections of fiction, poetry, plays, essays, and translations. Price was a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his work has been translated into seventeen languages.
Photo courtesy of Reynolds Price's author page on Amazon.com
His first short stories, and many later ones, are published in his Collected Stories. A Long and Happy Life was published in 1962 and won the William Faulkner Award for a best first novel. Kate Vaiden was published in 1986 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Good Priest's Son in 2005 was his fourteenth novel. Among his thirty-seven volumes are further collections of fiction, poetry, plays, essays, and translations. Price was a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his work has been translated into seventeen languages.
Photo courtesy of Reynolds Price's author page on Amazon.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
October 20, 2020
This memoir tells of the brutal change in the life of well known writer Reynolds Price after the discovery of a cancerous tumor at the top of his spine. The book describes his life as it changes from his diagnosis in 1984 through 1994. He was a professor at Duke University and he was eventually able to go back to teaching. He beautifully describes the help and support of friends and students through this time, as he realizes that he will never be his old self, but a new self instead. Gorgeous writing and I hope to read one of his novels in the near future.
October 20, 2015
A Whole New Life by Reynolds Price is the amazing tale of his intense four year struggle with a spinal cancer that left him paraplegic and subjected him to excruciating pain that he eventually learned to banish to the periphery of his consciousness through a mixture of hypnosis and biofeedback, not through the disorienting medications prescribed for him by chemically-oriented physicians.
Surgeries and radiation therapies undoubtedly saved Price's life but they rendered it all but intolerable. A renowned novelist, essayist and playwright who also taught English literature and writing at Duke, Price had a rich life to lose in his early 50s, and that's just about what happened.
Attended by friends and caregivers below the level of M.D., he struggled mightily as his lower half ceased functioning and his upper spine scorched him like scorpion's tail. This account is gruesome but its horror is mitigated to some extent by Price's faith in his dream life and the obvious fact that what he describes is something he survived--otherwise he could not have written such a book.
One especially valuable aspect of this medical tale is that it isn't told by a doctor. That makes it easier for mere mortals to identify with, and it also generates some well-deserved criticisms of doctors who were cold, clinical, and insensitive toward Price. He had a surgeon who gradually revealed how much he cared, but he also an oncologist who, like a number of doctors, fled from his failure to meet Price's needs.
As Price's legs and excretory functions spun out of control and the pain exceeded 10 on a scale that should have stopped at 10, he spent long months under the ineffective spell of drugs like methadone, dangerous in itself. When his feet and legs swelled to the point of being squishy he was given diuretics that didn't work well either. What he needed was a pair of pressurized leggings that would push the fluids up out of his legs so that they could be eliminated.
Somehow, at the halfway point in this journey (and he didn't know he was halfway home, he thought he might never reach home), Price managed to take up writing and then teaching again. And then he was bumped out of traditional Western medical care into the hands of the aforementioned hypnotist and biofeedback specialist. They, in company with unfailingly helpful nurses, orderlies and personal aides, focused on the mind element of the mind-body duality, and that's what gave Price control over his life, if not his lower half, again. He lived on to write not only this book but many others.
I should think almost anyone would find this book fascinating. It's richly written, inherently dramatic, and emotionally compelling. A few doctors, perhaps many doctors, might argue that with their caseloads they simply can't be fully available to every patient--their job is to prescribe, cut, radiate, and so forth. But this is a lame excuse. We've all known compassionate doctors who recognize the anxiety we feel when confronted with the mysteries of our own bodies. The point is to listen; being cut loose by the doctor who abandons us and moves on to the next case is the unkindest cut of all.
Surgeries and radiation therapies undoubtedly saved Price's life but they rendered it all but intolerable. A renowned novelist, essayist and playwright who also taught English literature and writing at Duke, Price had a rich life to lose in his early 50s, and that's just about what happened.
Attended by friends and caregivers below the level of M.D., he struggled mightily as his lower half ceased functioning and his upper spine scorched him like scorpion's tail. This account is gruesome but its horror is mitigated to some extent by Price's faith in his dream life and the obvious fact that what he describes is something he survived--otherwise he could not have written such a book.
One especially valuable aspect of this medical tale is that it isn't told by a doctor. That makes it easier for mere mortals to identify with, and it also generates some well-deserved criticisms of doctors who were cold, clinical, and insensitive toward Price. He had a surgeon who gradually revealed how much he cared, but he also an oncologist who, like a number of doctors, fled from his failure to meet Price's needs.
As Price's legs and excretory functions spun out of control and the pain exceeded 10 on a scale that should have stopped at 10, he spent long months under the ineffective spell of drugs like methadone, dangerous in itself. When his feet and legs swelled to the point of being squishy he was given diuretics that didn't work well either. What he needed was a pair of pressurized leggings that would push the fluids up out of his legs so that they could be eliminated.
Somehow, at the halfway point in this journey (and he didn't know he was halfway home, he thought he might never reach home), Price managed to take up writing and then teaching again. And then he was bumped out of traditional Western medical care into the hands of the aforementioned hypnotist and biofeedback specialist. They, in company with unfailingly helpful nurses, orderlies and personal aides, focused on the mind element of the mind-body duality, and that's what gave Price control over his life, if not his lower half, again. He lived on to write not only this book but many others.
I should think almost anyone would find this book fascinating. It's richly written, inherently dramatic, and emotionally compelling. A few doctors, perhaps many doctors, might argue that with their caseloads they simply can't be fully available to every patient--their job is to prescribe, cut, radiate, and so forth. But this is a lame excuse. We've all known compassionate doctors who recognize the anxiety we feel when confronted with the mysteries of our own bodies. The point is to listen; being cut loose by the doctor who abandons us and moves on to the next case is the unkindest cut of all.
January 30, 2015
Just finished reading Reynolds Price's memoir (A Whole New Life) about dealing with cancer and his post-tumor survival. While I was in the hospital years ago I longed for memoirs like that of Price and was unable to find books that spoke to the experiences of facing cancer. It is ironic that as my health has stabilized over the past couple of years that I have found the very books I searched for while ill. Most books at the time were either written in a manner that was too Oprahesque, too celebratory, too religious or too self-healing/self-help in their approach and I longed for books that spoke of the experience and how it affected one's perception of the world. Price is one of those writer's whose ability to communicate as a writer enables him to capture the nature of illness and make a fascinating memoir for anyone seeking to understand the interior experience of illness.
February 5, 2011
The author died a few weeks ago , 26 years after he survived ( just barely ) spinal cancer , but was left a paraplegic in constant pain. He later taught my daughter at Duke and wrote songs with James Taylor .
And after it all he writes " I have yet to watch another life that has brought more pleasure to it's owner than mine has to me ".
And he was grateful for the blessings of his life.
And after it all he writes " I have yet to watch another life that has brought more pleasure to it's owner than mine has to me ".
And he was grateful for the blessings of his life.
February 22, 2011
Price was diagnosed w/ spinal cord cancer in mid-1984. This book follows him through 3 surgeries and the radiation that left him a paraplegic. His attitude throughout the book, which chronicles a lot of pain and some inept medical treatment, is gratitude. The book ends in Dec. 1988 -- by that time, he had adjusted to his new life (which included becoming a more prolific writer . . . interesting).
Price had several encounters with Jesus during his illness and recovery -- encounters which were a little baffling for an unorthodox, academic intellectual guy like him, but which help evidence his true faith in Jesus Christ.
I particularly like this book because I knew the author but I think it would be good for anyone who has cancer or wants to understand what a serious chronic illness is like. Or anyone who has struggled with suffering. Price is a poet and has a poet's gift for observation and beauty. His lack of self-pity is notable.
My favorite class as an undergraduate was taught by Reynolds Price (on John Milton). I picked up this book b/c it was on display at the library following his death on Jan. 20. I took Prof. Price's class in spring 1989. He used a wheelchair but it was never a big deal - he never said anything about it and I always figured it was from a long-standing accident or something (he really had accepted his condition by that point). He was a gracious man.
Price had several encounters with Jesus during his illness and recovery -- encounters which were a little baffling for an unorthodox, academic intellectual guy like him, but which help evidence his true faith in Jesus Christ.
I particularly like this book because I knew the author but I think it would be good for anyone who has cancer or wants to understand what a serious chronic illness is like. Or anyone who has struggled with suffering. Price is a poet and has a poet's gift for observation and beauty. His lack of self-pity is notable.
My favorite class as an undergraduate was taught by Reynolds Price (on John Milton). I picked up this book b/c it was on display at the library following his death on Jan. 20. I took Prof. Price's class in spring 1989. He used a wheelchair but it was never a big deal - he never said anything about it and I always figured it was from a long-standing accident or something (he really had accepted his condition by that point). He was a gracious man.
October 20, 2009
Price's narrative of his painful and debilitating fight with spinal cancer is both brutally honest about his illness and suffering and the onset of his disabilities and lovely in his recognition of the love and care he receives from friends and relatives and his joy in his renewed ability to write. I'd recommend it to anyone but especially to anyone dealing with severe pain and catastrophic illness, their own or that of someone they love. I read it in a few hours--it had that strong a narrative pull.
May 27, 2014
Novelist, poet, and playwright Reynolds Price was diagnosed with spinal cancer in 1984. His book about it chronicles four years of treatment as surgery and radiation leave him paraplegic, wheelchair bound and dealing with unrelenting pain.
His personal journey makes for compelling and sometimes harrowing reading. The lessons taken from the experience illustrate how critical illness isolates an individual inside a complex of resources either developed or undeveloped during a life of chance and circumstance. That Price not only survives but finally thrives during treatment says much about his strength of character, religious faith, intelligence, the support of his healthcare providers, an employer with generous insurance coverage, the benefits of an extensive social network, and just plain luck.
Given all this, not all readers will be able to identify easily with his story, but his general advice at the end is no doubt widely applicable: When your life is up-ended by critical illness, don't waste time grieving losses or expecting a return to a former self. Move on. Instead of "Why me?" ask "What's next?"
His personal journey makes for compelling and sometimes harrowing reading. The lessons taken from the experience illustrate how critical illness isolates an individual inside a complex of resources either developed or undeveloped during a life of chance and circumstance. That Price not only survives but finally thrives during treatment says much about his strength of character, religious faith, intelligence, the support of his healthcare providers, an employer with generous insurance coverage, the benefits of an extensive social network, and just plain luck.
Given all this, not all readers will be able to identify easily with his story, but his general advice at the end is no doubt widely applicable: When your life is up-ended by critical illness, don't waste time grieving losses or expecting a return to a former self. Move on. Instead of "Why me?" ask "What's next?"
December 6, 2010
I remember being moved by this story of the author's battle with severe illness and recovery. Price leads his readers through all of the physical and emotional upheaval that his illness caused as it advanced. In slightly more than a year, longer than his doctors had anticipated, he was irreversibly a paraplegic. Future surgeries left Price in such unimaginable pain that he resorted to biofeedback and hypnosis to help control it. His attempt to regain some of his former life are courageous.
However, the most important memory I have of the book is that in the reading it I began to question the difference between truth and fiction. I wondered how true the memories of the author were really in baring the changes in his life.
However, the most important memory I have of the book is that in the reading it I began to question the difference between truth and fiction. I wondered how true the memories of the author were really in baring the changes in his life.
December 29, 2009
A must-read for almost everyone, it is the true story of one man's
journey through hell and back. Diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his
spinal cord that seemed certain to kill him, he takes us with him on a
physical and emotional roller-coaster ride, tapping all the deepest wellsprings of the spirit, mind, and body.
Never heard of Reynolds Price, the author, before this. Now I am looking at his other books, as well.
journey through hell and back. Diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his
spinal cord that seemed certain to kill him, he takes us with him on a
physical and emotional roller-coaster ride, tapping all the deepest wellsprings of the spirit, mind, and body.
Never heard of Reynolds Price, the author, before this. Now I am looking at his other books, as well.
January 31, 2025
Price ends with his advice for anyone who has a catastrophic health crisis as he did. Begin again with the new you. Accept it and go on from there. At least I think that is what he said. He suffered greatly and there were some doctors who had little or no compassion. Yet there were others--more nurses and physical therapists--who treated him as a person not just a cancer. His "whole new life" involved more writing than the years before his cancer hit. He credits many friends and relatives and caregivers who helped him with managing.
He credits prayer and a couple of mystical, spiritual experiences for which he was grateful.
I admire Price greatly. His book was inspiring in many ways but I hope and pray I may never need to go to it for inspiration with dealing with such pain and limitations.
I may try to read or reread some of Price's novels.
He credits prayer and a couple of mystical, spiritual experiences for which he was grateful.
I admire Price greatly. His book was inspiring in many ways but I hope and pray I may never need to go to it for inspiration with dealing with such pain and limitations.
I may try to read or reread some of Price's novels.
August 2, 2018
I found this a harrowing read. It depicted the author's experience of spinal cancer and what he had to endure. However there are many poignant and insightful comments about the human condition when faced with disease and the medical system which he writes in a particular style. He taught narrative writing at Duke University and this comes through in his prose.
"Yet however much our band of cripples may have resembled a swarming Hieronymus Bosch assortment of ludicrous damned souls in high torment, all but one of us grew in skill and self-reliance and above all in the raw appetite for life"
"Yet however much our band of cripples may have resembled a swarming Hieronymus Bosch assortment of ludicrous damned souls in high torment, all but one of us grew in skill and self-reliance and above all in the raw appetite for life"
May 22, 2022
I don’t recall how this book ended up in my TBR but I’m glad it did. The author has a beautiful writing style and the final chapter about the “coping and lessons learned” (my words) from his medical challenges are meaningful to any who are struggling with how to move on from medical challenges or perhaps the loss of a loved one, or any loss of how you expected your life to be. Most of the chapters are the author taking you though his journey from diagnosis to the care/surgeries/recovery and it was told in a way that didn’t elicit pity but rather was a view from his perspective.
May 30, 2020
I loved Reynolds Price’s writing since I first became acquainted with his books. Over the years I have read and enjoyed many of his novels. But this one was a very personal experience for me. Having recovered from 2 bouts of cancer and experienced much of life in my 69 years, his journey through cancer, surgery, radiation and recovery, expressed in such honest and intimate terms was a very moving experience for me.
October 18, 2018
I'm glad I own this book.
August 13, 2019
What an inspiring book. Not just for those with debilitating illnesses, but a guide for us all. I’ll read this one again.
February 27, 2011
Interesting memoir about his struggle with spinal cancer. I read this after hearing a taped interview with Reynolds Price on NPR (he died recently--NOT of cancer), and was hooked when he spoke of a vision and some other spiritual experiences he'd had during this time.
It's not the best book I've read (sometimes the descriptions of mundane details about who's taking care of him read like a very long "Acknowledgements" section). However I am interested in personal transformation lately and this book is about being confronted with life-changing adversity and being forced to cope.
I'd be interested in reading some of his fiction one day...
It's not the best book I've read (sometimes the descriptions of mundane details about who's taking care of him read like a very long "Acknowledgements" section). However I am interested in personal transformation lately and this book is about being confronted with life-changing adversity and being forced to cope.
I'd be interested in reading some of his fiction one day...
June 6, 2011
I am not familiar with the other works of Reynolds Price else I might have been more invested in the author's life. This particular work documents his battle for life -- enduring many hardships and times of uncertainty with a seemingly never-ending supply of friends and family. My only criticism of the book is that the author never fully opens up emotionally without qualifications. It is very well written, and toward the end there are some very powerful life lessons that would be helpful to anyone, especially those whose health is failing.
October 22, 2012
I enjoyed this book a lot. It's always nice to read memoirs written by people whose career is writing. He describes his journey and battle with spinal cancer from the first ignored symptoms to his life as a paraplegic. My only quibble is the name-dropping, but otherwise it's an eloquent account of an unexpected and unwanted turn and how he rebuilt a whole life, a new life. (From other reviews, I see that he died last year. The experiences he described took place in the 80's, so he did continue with his new life for a long time.)
July 16, 2015
An amazing, beautiful, honest book about how his life changed and truly transformed after he was diagnosed with cancer. As a new cancer patient myself, I found his words hard at times, but ultimately wise and very comforting. His perspective about choosing life and finding the new life waiting for you is valuable for anyone going through a big life transformation. Simply wonderful and very rich experience to go on this journey with this author.
January 28, 2009
I loved this book and would like to buy it for myself and those I care about. It truly gives hope to those who believe their lives are over. Reynolds Price is an amazing man who is not afraid to open the door and share his own fears and weaknesses to help others, and this biography of his healing is candid, raw and moving as any of his novels.
August 5, 2009
A very poignant memoir about dealing with life's struggles. I am experiencing my own problems, and was very wary of reading this book, but Price handled the situation very well. He never demanded pity, but stood adamant against the loss of his legs and healthy life style. I found the use of hyponosis and biofeedback a wonderful way to control/manage pain.
September 13, 2009
Price writes his reflections on "beating" an unbeatable form of cancer. He relates a divine healing in words that will take your breath away, but he also deftly relates his "whole new life" -- alive, but crippled forever. It is in his whole new life, post-cancer, that he learns the secrets of living to the fullest.
July 25, 2010
Live. Seriously, live. You never know what cards you will pull from the dealer on the Blackjack of Life. If you want hope, read this memoir. Personally, it has reminded me of all the goodness that surrounds me, the goodness of friends, colleagues, family, and yes, that Spiritual Being that gifts creativity.
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July 24, 2011What an inspiring book about a writer's journey back to physical and emotional health after a wrenching battle with spinal cancer. Though Reynolds Price lost much of what most of us take for granted (the ability to walk, the freedom to live alone, a life free from pain), his story resonates with gratitude and courage. A very good book.
December 2, 2007
An interesting view from inside a life reconstructed by cancer. Calming in a way, while also being a bit terrifying. It's amazing what we can bear and overcome, sometimes by holding on to our faith, sometimes by just muddling through.
July 22, 2010
Bought this nonfiction book at St. John's Univ. bookstore because it was recommended by a professor. What I gained from it was a whole new understanding of ongoing pain. The author had an inoperable tumor wrapped around his spine. Laser technology finally became available and helped him.
April 8, 2017
When I read that Reynolds Price died last Thueursday, I grabbed this off my bookshelf to finally read...and I appreciated it on so many levels: the writerly craft, the poetry, the health and pain management narrative, and the gratitude of being able to work at what you love.
December 24, 2011
I give this 4 stars (rather than 3) for the last chapter and some of the poems-particularly The Eel and An Afterlife. I would recommend this for anyone dealing with traumatic physical changes and healthcare providers.
April 25, 2009
Interesting read of a writer's dealing with his illness.
June 14, 2024
Somehow never boring, never apologetic, never wallowing in self-pity. An immensely insightful and beautiful tragedy.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews