Swimming in a Sea of Death - David Rieff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Sontag - David Rieff, a non-fiction writer and policy analyst, is the only son of Susan Sontag - a literary theorist that I had a love/hate relationship with in college. Swimming in a Sea of Death is Rieff's memoir about the last year of his mother's life and her 30+ year battle with cancer. Rieff's book, while divided into chapters, is more like a monologue of his various thoughts on life and death, and what it means to be a caretaker for the sick and ultimately, the one who is left behind. Desipte the fact that this book is quite short, I found it incredibly repetitive - like a person suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who feels compelled to repeat and relive certain feelings or events from the past. The subject matter and language reminded me of Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and Rieff quotes Didion on multiple occasions while strugging to put words to his emotions. Rieff focuses much of the book on his mother's attitude toward illness and death - her refusal to believe that she would one day die, and the miraculous recoveries she made from prior illnesses. Rieff also refers frequently to Sontag's powerful essay "Illness as Metaphor" in which Sontag argues that the various metaphors our society has created surrounding illness (most popularly the war metaphor) contribute to the suffering of patients and their reluctance to seek the treatment they need. I think reading this essay, along with Sontag's later essay "AIDS and its Metaphors," in conjunction with Rieff's book helps to understand better Sontag's approach to her illness and Rieff's often feelings of helplessness. This book is incredibly depressing, but it is a valuable viewpoint worth reading for anyone dealing with illness and lost.