Not Exactly What I had in Mind: An Incurable Love Story, by Rosemary Breslin (HC, 1997, $3)
I suppose you could say this book reminded me of Love Story, but this book is better written, funnier, and really happened. Rosemary Breslin had a famous and wealthy father. She also had a weird, as in never seen before, ailment, that was not cancer, and was not AIDS. Exactly what it was, though, no one knew. They didn't know when she first became ill, and at the end of the book, 8 years later, they still don't know. Thus the problem- if you don't know the diagnosis, how do you treat the disease. More importantly, how does Rosemary manage to live both with the illness, and the uncertainty.
In the beginning Breslin's life is a mess. Not only is she ill, but she is also unemployed, heavily in debt, near to being homeless, and, need I mention, a tad bit depressed. You would expect this book to be a real downer, except it isn't. Like in a fairytale, she meets a prince. Unlike the fairytale, they do not live happily after, but oh, do they live!
"This can't be my life... But I know it is. And I love it. and I can't say I'd change any of it, even the illness, because it's who I am and without it maybe there wouldn't be Tony Dunne. And that's what it's all about for me. A great part of living with this illness and not losing my sanity involves both looking at the amazing way my life has unfolded after I got sick and accepting I may not get some of the things I want so badly. My health. A baby. A long life. But I did get to be someone I'm proud to be. And I got Tony Dunne."
This book was written in 1997, with Breslin and her husband hanging in there. I have grown to admire, and strangely even love this woman. She is so brave, so funny, and so real. Of course I checked out her current "status" on the internet, and found just what I thought I would find. I feel sad, but oh, but what a life!
Look for this on the new non-fiction table, avail. 1/11. (Later: biog. section)
