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Overview
At age 63, Marvin Barrett, author, Senior Lecturer at The Columbia School of Journalism, husband, father of four grown children, and heart patient, was told he had cancer. For the next six months he kept the journal on which this candid and moving book is based. Spare Days details his experiences and perceptions along with his memories of a rich and resonant life. A must for anyone facing a life threatening disease or knowing and loving someone who is."A rare and painful testimony as spare and beautiful as mortal bone." (Peter Matthiessen)
"Flawless literary jewelry...as spiritually exciting and comforting to me as would be the Taj Mahal itself." (Kurt Vonnegut)
Author Bio: Marvin Barrett is the author of 13 books of fiction and non-fiction. The most recent is Second Chance, a companion volume to Spare Days, which explores the spiritual and emotional resources of old age. Barrett lives in New York City and Long Island with his wife of 48 years, the writer Mary Ellin Barrett
Synopsis
At age 63, Marvin Barrett, author, Senior Lecturer at The Columbia School of Journalism, husband, father of four grown children, and heart patient, was told he had cancer. For the next six months he kept the journal on which this candid and moving book is based. Spare Days details his experiences and perceptions along with his memories of a rich and resonant life. A must for anyone facing a life threatening disease or knowing and loving someone who is.
"A rare and painful testimony as spare and beautiful as mortal bone." (Peter Matthiessen)
"Flawless literary jewelry...as spiritually exciting and comforting to me as would be the Taj Mahal itself." (Kurt Vonnegut)
Author Bio: Marvin Barrett is the author of 13 books of fiction and non-fiction. The most recent is Second Chance, a companion volume to Spare Days, which explores the spiritual and emotional resources of old age. Barrett lives in New York City and Long Island with his wife of 48 years, the writer Mary Ellin Barrett
Publishers Weekly
During seven months in 1983-84, following diagnosis of his cancer, 63-year-old Columbia School of Journalism lecturer Barrett, author of The Jazz Age, etc., recorded not only the physical ordeal but major crises in his mental and spiritual life and his feeling of rebirth after ``clinical death'' during a heart attack. The prospect of imminent death changed his perspectives and priorities. A trip to Italya quest for serenity in Assisi and the Umbrian hillsundertaken just before committing himself to surgery, provides an affecting episode in this account of his journey between tormenting childhood memories and the uncertain future. Restored to health, at least temporarily after a brush with death, Barrett concludes his musings on a note of renewed faith and expectations. (June)