The title of Dan Shapiro's memoir of his battle with cancer, \Mom's Marijuana,"" is extremely misleading'pot plays a very tiny role in this story of survival. Shapiro is an extremely courageous man whose battles with cancer bring him to a place of sublime appreciation of the pleasures of life. Although this makes the book sound like it should be shelved next to ""Chicken Soup for the Soul,"" Shapiro takes his experiences and turns them into slightly humorous, extremely touching lessons for the world at large without the saccharine touch of most inspirational stories.
Shapiro was a 20-year-old pre-med student when he was first diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. After seven months of intensive treatment, he and his family thought the cancer was licked. Sixteen months and a bone marrow transplant later, Shapiro was battling the disease again.
""Mom's Marijuana"" was named for the irony Shapiro saw when his mother, a woman strongly against drug use, volunteered to grow weed in her backyard to ease her son's suffering. Shapiro discusses his parents' reactions to his disease throughout the book, but it really isn't his focus. The story jumps from one element of sick life to another: struggling with the oppositional forces of being simultaneously a med student and a patient, having a new romantic relationship tested by cancer, and accounts of near-death experiences in the emergency room. All of the different memories reinforce Shapiro's sentiment of being thankful for his life after having it nearly taken from him, and show how much the little things now mean.
The book is set up as a series of anecdotes from Shapiro's life. The brief nature of the stories is engaging'he never dwells on one issue too long. Shapiro's battle is heartbreaking, but he keeps the tone light as he moves back and forth from sad stories to happier ones. He is also a masterful writer. The words make his experiences come alive to the reader.
With the holidays coming up, it's easy to become irritated by relatives and suffer through the season. But Shapiro has recognized something everyone should'the things about the people in one's life that are most irritating now are likely to be the ones treasured when times are hard. One shouldn't wait for a crisis to realize this'appreciate the idiosyncrasies now rather than later.
