Welcome to the comments and discussion of Chapter 11: Pat of the book, I’m Just A Person by Tig Notaro! Catch up on Chapter 1: Over My Mother’s Dead Body, Chapter 2: Are You My Mother, Chapter 3: The Downfall, Chapter 4: Saying Good-Bye, Chapter 5: Letting Go, Chapter 6: Diagnosis, Chapter 7: Largo, Chapter 8: Looking Down, Chapter 9: God Never Gives You More Than You Can Handle, and Chapter 10: R2, Where Are You?.
Let’s get started! Chapter 11!
As we’ve been reading this book, I’ve given a lot of thought to the order of events that Tig shares with us and the events that she chooses to share. An entire chapter on Pat, for instance, struck me as slightly odd at first. Here was a man, who Tig barely knew, taking up an entire chapter in a book that is otherwise deep and raw and very self-aware. This chapter is like a scratch on the surface encounter compared to the rest. Then it hit me…cancer does this. Cancer dredges everything to the surface whether you’re diagnosed or whether someone else around you is. Cancer makes us yearn for the things that we haven’t had or haven’t taken enough advantage of. It makes us grateful for the love and generosity we’ve been soaked with in our lives. Cancer makes us miss people who have been absent even when we’ve done alright without them.
Cancer illuminates the shoulds and the coulds of our lives, shedding light into the corners of every possibility.
—
Thanks for joining us for Chapter 11: Pat of I’m Just A Person! Join in next Monday for Chapter 12: Stage IV.
If you’re just joining us, here are some logistics:
We will talk about a chapter each Monday until the book is done. Then, we’ll use one more Monday to talk about general feelings from the book and anything else you’d like to discuss. Join in, in the comments every week! At the end, we’ll have a book club discussion via video chat! Also, there will probably be spoilers. Read along with us!
How are you enjoying our young adult cancer book club?
