Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics

by Miriam Engelberg

Miriam Engelberg was forty-three when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Like anyone faced with a life-altering personal trauma, she sought out a coping mechanism. While fellow patients championed the benefits of support groups and hypnotherapy, Engelberg found her greatest comfort in drawing, her lifelong passion.


Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person puts Engelberg's life in focus the best way she knows how - with cartoons. Her graphic approach to a very serious subject follows in the tradition of Art Spiegelman's award-winning Maus, but in her own offbeat, on-target, and darkly, devastatingly humorous style. From sex and wigs to nausea and causes - Was it overzealous cheese consumption or not enough multivitamins? - Engelberg leaves no aspect of cancer unexamined.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Memoir, Comics, Nonfiction, Humor, Graphic Novels Comics, Health

126 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

About the author

Miriam Linda Engelberg (7 January 1958 - 17 October 2006) was a graphic novelist and illustrator, whose battle with metastatic breast cancer was chronicled in her bestselling comic memoir, Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person.

Reviews

[Laurel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I intended to like this graphic novel. I almost feel bad that I didn't. It's about a woman who undergoes cancer treatment at a young age and takes up cartooning during the process to record her experience. I love the title of this book and it conveys a type of coping method that sometimes offends and is often overlooked as healthy: humor. I think it's fair to say that it's difficult to discuss life-threatening illness and Engelberg opens the doors of discourse by making her readers comfortable and allowing us to laugh at all of the crazy human stuff that gets emphasized during an illness. I mean, we all have these gross, amazing, and sometimes uncontrollable bodies, and sometimes we don't feel all that connected to them. Cancer makes you really think about your body, in a very complex way. But something was missing for me in this memoir. I guess the humor protected her, and I don't discount that as a way of getting through the process of illness. I think as a reader, however, I didn't get enough of the other stuff to balance it out. I wanted to see some development of insight, I wanted to hear about her relationship with her young child more. I wanted to follow her further along in the process. She died after this book was published and I wonder if she continued reading "People" magazine and watching tabloid TV until the end. I kind of think I would, and maybe that's why I wasn't blown away by this. I related to it so much that it didn't contain any surprises.

[Malia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this immediately after being diagnosed with breast cancer and loved loved loved it. The clumsy drawing style put me off at first but I was quickly drawn into her humor and style. It was the perfect antidote to all those people looking at me with sad eyes and saying gently, "How are you?" Some days I wanted to be as shallow as fingernail polish and this book helped me to feel like that was not only okay but like it was a. . .what? A cool response to a wicked hard time. My daughter, 13 at the time, also read this and laughed out loud- we needed that. I read a huge stack of breast cancer books and this is one of three that I kept.

[Hannah Garden · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are one of these people who's like "comics has to be drawn good also the lettering better be TIGHT" might I suggest you sew yourself into a sack and huck yourself into the lake.

This is a very very good read.

[Carah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never had cancer... but if I ever get dealt that card in life... I will buy this book and read it everyday. This is one of those memoirs that are so honest and relatable... that you can’t help but enjoy it. When you go through something tough, reading something like this makes you feel less alone, and I appreciate books like that... they are so needed. The art is pretty amateur but that’s what makes it so endearing and funny at times. The author so effortlessly portrayed the struggles and hardships a journey through cancer brings while using lightness and humor to create a raw and relatable reading experience. I don’t know what made me pick this up at the library... but I’m glad I did.

[Charlene Mathe · Rating 5 out of 5]

People look at me strangely when I say how much I love this book. Miriam Engelberg left us a wonderful gift in tracing with such realism and wit her day-by-day experience of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. It is unbelievable that cancer proved stronger than this vivacious and funny, not to mention beautiful woman. How is it possible that her memoir makes me laugh out loud and to the point of tears on nearly every page? I guess her book is not for everyone, but if you like (maybe) dark humor, you'll love this book, and you'll love this author!

[Kats · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another breast cancer journey in form of a graphic memoir, alas, this is one that doesn't have a happy ending. I think it's a case of 'the right book at the wrong time' for me. Whilst Miriam Engelberg injects a healthy dose of humour into her drawings and the dialogues / thought processes, the book was certainly overshadowed by the sad fact on page 1 that "the author is survived by her husband and son".

More serious and depressing than Cancer Vixen Miriam Engelberg's account of her breast cancer instilled a sense of anxiety and gloom in me that I probably should try and do without at this point in my life.

A very brave, honest and introspective read, though. I particularly like the fact that she admits that "cancer made me a shallower person"..... we can't all be saints or start turning our lives around in the face of adversity. Some of us simply need trashy TV or some other form of shallow distraction to get through the rough stuff. Kudos to Ms Engelberg.

[Cheryl Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tracked my own post-cancer-diagnosis thought process beat for beat, from self-blame (did she cause cancer by eating too much cheese? Miriam Engelberg wonders), to worrying that your doomsday thoughts are foreshadowing in the movie of your life, to becoming hopelessly addicted to terrible TV. Either Miriam Engelberg and I have a lot in common, or breast cancer is a completely predictable, universal experience. I feel like she would hope it's the former, just like I do--although I'm sure there are some common cancer threads.

The hazard of reading even the most humorous cancer memoirs is that sometimes you Google the writer and learn that she's died. And when, two thirds of the way through the book, her cancer metastasizes, you think, "Well, I guess I know exactly how I'll feel if this happens to me, which is: pretty shitty."

The drawings are terrible, but the writing is funny and fearless. This might be one of the most challenging super-simple-to-read books I've read. I hope that Miriam's essence is kicking back, doing a crossword somewhere.

[Andrew Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

First things first: don't let the title or the artwork scare you off. The title, if you can imagine it, is tongue in cheek -- like the rest of the book, it's at once honestly vulnerable, deeply personal, and improbably funny. The artwork, while messy, is as idiosyncratic and as interesting as handwriting. What might seem odd or challenging to read in the first few pages quickly becomes fascinating and subtly communicative, and is just as enjoyable as poring over every jot and tittle of a friend's handwritten note for the nuance and depth of its meaning.

Engelberg handles her subject matter with a quirkiness that is nevertheless graceful and pensive, an honesty that is unflinching but eminently readable, as well as an attention to detail that is always illuminating -- and often surprisingly funny.

An important counterpoint to quick and easy narratives about the experience of having cancer, this book offers a window into the layered complexity of diagnosis and coping, passing thoughts and odd surprises, self-blame and awkward conversations in spite of good intentions. Yet the author manages to convey these experiences with a lightness of touch that welcomes the reader without compromising a direct look at genuinely difficult experiences. The shortness and variety of the many stories here offers a rich variety of perspectives, moments, and emotional tones.

For such a quick and seemingly simple read, "Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person" is impressively thoughtful and subtle, and never overwhelming despite the intensity of its subject matter. Through the ultimately charming pen-doodle drawing style and scrawled capital lettering come some unexpected lessons that we can all benefit from in treating others and ourselves with honesty and sympathy -- and, in spite of everything, maybe even a sense of humour.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

More and more I believe in comics as a very true way to communicate. And, I'm glad I have lived long enough to discover this! Similar to my discover/rediscovery of picture books; so much truth can be in a very small frame! I haven't had cancer myself, and don't know what it in store for me, but after watching and being with some loved ones who have survived, but are now gone, I know that it is so very different for everyone. And though the whole positive attitude thing might be what makes being sick comfortable for those who are around you, who the heck wants to HAVE to be cheerful in the least, when traveling ground like this? This is a great book. Miriam Engleberg, cancer comedian. Woman, sick and well, scared and smart and crabby and telling it like it is.

[Stelleri]

True to life and astute.

[Maria Shaul · Rating 5 out of 5]

איך להעביר מסר על דברים קשים מנשוא בצורה הומוריסטית

[Dima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anxious girlies unite I loved this book. Maybe my favourite of the HSL reads

[Midge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I imagine some cancer patients can relate to Miriam's reactions to all this cancer thing, reactions that are quite contrary to what people expect from someone diagnosed with cancer. Seems like a death sentence gives anyone the license to be shallow.

[Cara · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know how whenever you hear about someone getting diagnosed with cancer, it always seems to make them realize what's important and devote their lives to that, and throw themselves into experiencing life at its fullest, and stop worrying about the little things, and love everybody? It seems like it's always something like that. This book is compelling because it presents a counter-example: someone who has none of those experiences... and actually admits it! It's told in a series of cartoons, many of which are very funny, and in a way, I found it a big relief that if I ever come down with a dread disease yet am not beatified by the experience, I won't be the only one. On the other hand, I was a bit depressed by how much I saw myself in the author. I guess I sort of assumed that, even though I really don't know what to do with myself now or have any grand Purpose or direction in life, one of two things would happen: I'd get some dread disease and have the big revelations everybody else gets about what's really meaningful and how to live life to the fullest and then do that; or I'd just be bopping along like usual and suddenly bite it before I had a chance to dwell on it. Either way, it seemed like it would all work out pretty well. But if it's not guaranteed that dread disease = enlightenment, it sounds like I'm kind of screwed. What are the chances that I'll just die suddenly? And even for ordinary stuff, I really hate the last few days (or months) of something--it always feels like there's this great pressure to really make it count, and that ruins it for me. So if it was the last X months of my life instead of the last month of summer vacation or whatever, I don't know how I'd stand it. Overall, quite depressing. I hope the author and I both figure it out.

[Allie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this more, but so much about it fell completely flat. I really really support people drawing comics just because, even if you aren't super good at it. But I also feel like the more you draw the better you get at it, even if it's just a teeny tiny bit! You don't even have to try! You draw a lot, you get better at what you're doing, even if what you're doing is speech bubbles or repeated patterns or aliens or oncologists. I love atypical drawing/cartooning styles (like Lauren Redniss, Esther Pearl Watson, and sometimes even Maira Kalman falls into that category); drawings that aren't your typical comic style, nor are they necessarily realistic or strictly representational. I think it's weird that Engelberg read a lot of comics (she referenced my favorite person, Lynda Barry!) and drew so often, and this is her final product.

There were parts that I liked because she is relatable, but when she tried for jokes it was a lot like watching a multicam sitcom with a laugh track (really asking for the laugh), except it's a book and there's no laugh track!

I was just generally pretty disappointed with this book. I wanted to like it, but I just didn't.

[Vicki_Loves_Libraries · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOL funny about a subject where laughs are hard to find.

This darkly funny comic book memoir gave me brief reprieve from the pain of dealing with cancer.

I laughed out loud. It feels good to release some of the pent-up emotion at the hand of someone who knows the agony of cancer.

Engelberg's book was published in 2006. Sadly, she did not make it.

My favorite parts of Engelberg's observations:

"Booklet World" Engelberg observes that there is an upbeat educational booklet for almost every medical procedure. No matter how unbearable the procedure is, the booklet has an illustration of a nature scene and images of insanely cheerful patients. Engelberg notes, "The tone of the booklet is always cool and calm."
When her cancer metastacized, she admits that people's inspirational stories worked against her at that point. Miriam illustrates, "I considered carrying around a sign 'Lance Armstrong had a different form of cancer.'"
Engelberg describes the bizarre mechanical sounds she heard during a brain MRI as being something from a Monthy Python movie. She suggests that the "Boom-a Boom-a", "Bada Boom Bada Bing", "ClackClackClack", "Plink Plink", and "Ding Dong" sounds are made by the Monty Python Team in the Control Room, and wryly states, "I never quite trust that MRIs are an actual medical procedure."

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

At a glance, a lot of people didn't seem to like this book, but I did! The drawing is not great, not "professional" or impressive, but herein lies its strength for me, in a way; she makes herself accessible to us, she is not above us, she is one of us. The book catalogues her breast cancer.. and finally, she dies in 2006. Grim? Well, yes, but she is often very funny, and unfailingly honest in her wish to escape through tv, crossword puzzles…. anything not to think about it… and escapes through humor, of course. The point of this to counteract all the Cancer Made Me a Better Person or was a Gift or whatever books… she is often bitter, angry, confused, hurt… and filters that through humor. I liked it a lot and learned…. I read these books for the time I (might) get ill, to see how people cope. I learned. RIP, Miriam, and thanks.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my absolute favourite books ever. She "can't draw" (she says): her drawings are very basic and crude. Almost like kids' drawings. But they work perfectly, conveying her pain and anger and awesome sense of humour. She is an amazing writer. I was very sad when I found out that she died.

[Hasan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a terminally ill cancer patient in my early 20s, I could relate to everything in this short memoir. Well, except of course the fact that I am not married and I don’t have kids. I really enjoyed it!

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you heard of graphic medicine? I hadn't! As part of a graphic novel class I am taking, we looked at graphic memoirs that are all about dealing with an illness or a condition of some kind. I had no idea that there are entire conferences dedicated to doctors and other health professionals meeting with cartoonists and comic artists to improve understanding between doctors and patients through storytelling.

So, off to the library I went, and grabbed El Deafo (about becoming deaf after a bout of meningitis as a kid, and becoming that "one deaf kid" in the neighborhood--it's adorable), Mom's Cancer (author's observations on how his mother's cancer got diagnosed, the ensuing treatments, and the emotional toll the treatments and dealing with doctors took), and this: Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person. All of them could be prefaced with, "I wish someone had written this book before me, so that I could have known what dealing with this would really be like."

Engelbert's short graphic memoir is hilarious--or at least, as hilarious as breast cancer can be. She doesn't want to be called a "survivor" or "brave": all she wants to do is watch TV and do crossword puzzles. But does that make her a bad person? When a doctor tells her in the waiting room, "I didn't recognize you from your photos!" she's puzzled because she doesn't remember any photos having been taken. But sure enough, the doctor says "we did, look!" and shows a picture of her breasts. Her story is a cavalcade of both wonderful and so terrible bedside manners that you can't help but laugh; it's so ludicrous. But anyone who has had to deal with an illness that results in frequent visits to a doctor (or from one doctor to another) can absolutely relate to the cast of characters.

While graphic medicine is probably most helpful for folks with similar conditions for the camaraderie they offer, the gallows humor, and the relief that you are not alone, reading graphic memoirs like these should be extremely useful for friends and family members, too. They're as close as you can get to being a mind reader!

[Gretchen Bily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miriam Engelberg is the author of Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person, a book of funny comic strips about her ordeal with breast cancer, from getting diagnosed to eventually becoming terminally ill. She says that when she was diagnosed, she thought she should figure out the deep purpose and meaning of her life, but all she really wanted to do was watch bad tv. Some of her comics are about how support groups only make her feel worse for not being able to look on the bright side of things, and the MRI technician who tries to do a sock puppet show like Patch Adams, but just seems pathetic and crazy.

One of my favorite parts of the book is the introduction, in which she writes about how she regrets having a baby.

"When my husband and I decided to have a baby, I looked forward to mellowing out. Though I loved doing theater, it was a lot of work, not so much the performing part as the fact that we were doing our own production and marketing. I pictured myself walking in the park with the baby, finally getting the chance to smell the roses, so to speak. Most other parents told us how fun parenting was. So my husband and I were completely unprepared for the exhaustion and tedium of caring for a baby. We loved Aaron very much, of course, but we decided that there was a conspiracy among parents not to reveal the truth in order to lure unsuspecting couples into joining them."

[Renee Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for class. Really enjoyed this. Felt unabashedly human and flawed and bitter and angry. I thought it was genuinely sooooo funny. The scene where the doctor is like "you don't look like your picture" and it pans to a picture of her boobs? Oh my god like I literally audibly laughed and took a picture cause I found it so funny. Or the scene where she's like what if I'm just a bald woman with no eyebrows watching TV, why do you assume I have cancer? Laughed a lot. God it was refreshing to read something that wasn't ashamed of its bitterness, that acknowledged that illness can suck and things don't always get better but that life moves on and we retain the potential to complain. Dark humor done earnestly. Loved this one a lot. The ending really hit for me. We are all on this earth alongside Engelberg and her memory.

[Nushu Shri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engelberg categorizes herself as a "shallow" person by the title, but I feel the opposite: she shows remarkable positivity for her circumstances. This book isn't about being happy all the time, though, and instead covers humorous, relatable situations through commentary about what it feels like to go through cancer. Some panels, especially toward the end, felt like they were about to get sad, but her down-to-earth, sincere jokes bring a smile to the reader's face. This is not a tragic book at all—it's hopeful and witty!

I also liked her simple art style. I do wish the panels could have been more connected in a plot, but I also like the series of topics covered disjointly. A great read. Rest in peace.

[Mary Karpel-Jergic · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers an antidote to all the cancer memoirs that suggest that cancer was the best thing to happen to them. Without depicting too much of the physical trauma that cancer brings in its wake, Miriam Engelberg manages to portray the psychological maelstrom that envelops the cancer patient along with all the comments, well meant or otherwise, from observers that often make the experience more daunting and inexplicable.

Awfully sad, Miriam died in 2006, aged 48, from breast cancer diagnosed in 2001 and which in 2006 spread to her brain.

[Karine Martel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Voilà une bien belle bd sur un ton humoristique qui raconte les hauts et les bas de Myriam atteinte d’un cancer du sein à l’âge de 43 ans. Ses planches sont bien illustrées, les écrits nous font sourire, le langage est approprié. Un roman graphique très touchant sur la réalité du cancer qui me touché particulièrement. Livre emprunté au centre de documentation du nouveau Centre Intégré en cancérologie de l’Hopital l’Enfant Jésus de Québec. J’ai pu le lire en français bien que sur Goodreads, il ne soit pas possible de voir l’édition francophone.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really good. It was funny and smart and I laughed quite a bit. Having been through breast cancer with my mom I could recognize a lot in it. I saw a lot of myself in the author, in her twisted sense of humor, her questioning nature and her aversion to all things hokey. It was hard to read just because of the familiarity and because I know how things turned out for her but I'm definitely glad I read it.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I know. It's a graphic novel that isn't very well drawn and is about a tough topic and it doesn't end well. But this felt so much more real than some of the one-dimensional characters who are made into amazing people by whatever hardship in life. Sometimes things are hard for no reason, and it's totally fine to be annoyed and angered and not made better by that. This is dark and funny and rings true.

[Andrew Dittmar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading history:
Normally I keep this in my private notes section, but I'm moving it. Yay!

Reading history was not added on Goodreads, but was instead kept on a post-it note with the book.

Started April 17th, 2025.
Finished April 24th, 2025.

April 17th, 2025: read pp. 1-10 (through the comic "Diagnosis")
April 24th, 2025: read pp. 11-126 (from "Breast Cancer as a Hobby" through Acknowledgments)

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one didn't truly make me feel anything too strongly, which isn't a ringing endorsement. This is not a story of a woman triumphing over breast cancer using humor. It's a woman who has cancer come back and she ultimately succumbs. She uses some humor to cope. So be aware of that before you pick this one up.

[Sharon Falduto]

A memoir in comic form. The author has breast cancer and expresses her feelings through cartooning. She writes and darws about how she thinks she should feel but doesn't, about how she turned off her fears by immersing herself in TV, and about how maybe she should have saved her spiritual awakening for later in life, rather than using it up in college.