“The knowledge that you’re ill is one of the momentous experiences in life,” Anatole Broyard wrote, speaking of being “galvanized” by his diagnosis of prostate cancer in Intoxicated by My Illness. Susan Sontag told The New York Times that her cancer diagnosis had “added a fierce intensity to my life, and that’s been pleasurable.” But there was nothing galvanizing or fiercely intense about my experience. It was more like a soul going limp, a steady drain of energy and of will.
