Death Be Not Proud (Perennial Classics) (1998) - Plot & Excerpts
Called in to serve jury duty and wanting something to read while waiting in the jurors room, I grabbed this book off of a shelf of old books in my garage. Ironically I didn't get placed on a jury, but now I'm putting myself to judge this book.I'd never heard of the book before and was not familiar with the author even though I'd had the book sitting in my garage for many years. From my research on the author I found that he was well known from the late 1930's until the 1970's. Though he'd written a number of best-sellers in his time, Death Be Not Proud is for the most part the only book for which he is remembered.The story deals with the discovery that his teenage son has a serious brain tumor that will lead to death and the road that the parents take to prolong the young man's life. The kid dies in the end, but that's not a spoiler since we are told the outcome from the beginning. The real story is the attempts to prolong the teen's life and the struggle that the young man has to deal with along the way.Since we are seeing this story mainly through the eyes of the father who is a professional writer what we get is a very competently written account of the event. In some ways the presentation is strangely analytical and aloof, but after all the author was essentially a journalist.I was not particularly moved by the story, but it was compelling to read nevertheless. The story is recounted with great detail as we are given background on the author's son and the treatments he undergoes in order to attempt to keep him alive. I found it interesting that the treatment for cancer and tumors seemed to be similar to what we now have, but then again I might be reading into this aspect from my point of view of the reader in "the future".Naturally it's sad to read about the premature passing of anyone and all the more so when the death comes to a young man who seemed to show so much promise for the future. Therein lies part of the problem of this story. Young Johnny Gunther was a child of what was obviously a privileged family who were able to provide the best treatments they could find in their day. They had money and connections with people in high places. This story for the average American would have ended far sooner with lesser consequences.After all the parents from the sound of things spend most of their time galavanting about the globe while their son has essentially been raised in private schools. The story that is not told is perhaps more intriguing than the one that we read in this book. The parents obviously have some kind of love for the boy, but I was drawn to the question of what this son really meant to them and what would have eventually happened had the boy lived a normal life span. Silly questions I suppose, but still this was the sort of thing that crossed my mind as I was reading. Just as young Johnny wonders about why his parents were divorced, I too wondered about this couple who appear to work well together through the ordeal and yet seem to lead very distinct lives apart.I may well have missed the point of this short memoir--a very quick and easy read--but still I think the author may have missed some opportunities for a deeper analysis that might have been more satisfying to readers years after the incidents in the book occurred.All in all this book is an okay diversion for passing one's time, but I don't think I would label this as a "classic". I'm not certain why students would be required to read this book for literature classes other than the fact that it is well written for the most part. And I mean well written like a good magazine article, albeit a very long, perhaps serialized article. I was left somewhat cold by the book even though I was engrossed throughout and glad that I had read it.Would I recommend this book to anyone else? Sure, if you go into it with the understanding of what the book is about. Because it's a short quick reading experience you won't be giving up much to get through Death Be Not Proud and some readers may get more from it than what I did. I was not uplifted, but it was something to read while I was just passing time.
This book was my first Non-Fiction book I have read all year, or possibly in my whole life, and I couldn’t be more thankful that I chose it as ‘my first’. After the first few pages, it was clear to me that I hadn’t read anything quite like it. It’s obvious that the wording is different, but that is understandable once recognizing the time period. But the book was so different because the way John Gunther writes is indescribable. He writes with such little emotion, but yet when it comes to the sullen, sad moments, you can almost hear the crack in his voice and see the water welling in his eyes. Differentiating between the happy and the sad moments is probably the hardest part about reading this book. John Gunther describes the sad moments in some what the same matter as he describes the happy moments, which could possibly be influenced by the fact that he is writing about his son’s death. But by leaving the moments open for our own perspective, Gunther lets us imagine ourselves in a similar situation, making the predicament more relatable to us as the readers. The way John Gunther writes this piece is interesting and intriguing. He doesn’t dwell on any event or topic long. His writing is bold and moving, yet calm and quiet. He makes us feel furious about the situation but also hopeful, that something as horrible as this would never happen to someone like Johnny. The pace of the book is slow, but I believe this adds to the piece. It gives Gunther time to explain his writing and also gives us time to comprehend everything we are soaking in. If he were to write this novel fast and quick paced, I believe it would have lost all its significant meaning and purpose. Therefore, John Gunther does an excellent job on this piece and I don’t believe that there is anything I would change about this book. I give Death Be Not Proud a 3.5 out of 5 star rating.
What do You think about Death Be Not Proud (Perennial Classics) (1998)?
This is a re-read of something I first encountered ~35 years ago. I remember liking it more then. Because of the time period, age of the protagonist and the foregone conclusion (and all the letters and diary entries), it reminds me a bit of The Diary of Anne Frank, with cancer standing in for the Nazis. I think it's a great memorial to his son, but am unsure whether it stands as a true classic.The bit about their detour with Gerson struck one of my hot button issues, of cancer and "alternative medicine." There is no such thing as alternative medicine: there is medical practice that can have its efficacy measured in trials, and medical practice that doesn't. What works gets absorbed into "mainstream" medicine, what doesn't falls by the wayside (read Kuhn on scientific paradigms). There is no evil cabal of doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies conspiring to keep cheap and simple cures from unknowing public, any more than there are evil auto companies conspiring to keep secret combustion engines that run on water. Having watched three relatives die of cancer (including one of brain cancer), and watching two of them turn to snake oil salesman who had nothing to offer but false hope and a willingness to get rich off the desperation of dying people, people like Gerson and Burzynski make me furious (hint to non-scientists: the plural of "anecdote" is not "data"). Side note: the epub edition (a 2013 edition that I borrowed from my local public library), has more typos than one would expect from a classic published by a major house. You'd think they could hire a competent proofreader/copyeditor.
—JDK1962
I found this drab. A sad story. It was difficult to relate to the situation. Though Johnny Gunther seemed to have had a spirit even his overbearingly proud father could not dim even through his(father's) storytelling. I felt it was a rather inappropriate publication and seemed to have served the purpose of easing his(author's) own pain rather than enlightening the public with the triumphant soul of a helpless child, which is understandable. This story might better have been told with outside assistance.
—Kate Fletcher
A profound little book. I started reading this ages ago, before I was fully able to understand the subject matter. Now, reading it again as a young adult I am more apt to understand and appreciate this work. I am fascinated by Johnny's selfless tendencies - to care more for his parents than his own trials. He does express his upset occasionally, but for the most part he is consumed by his passions in science and his aspirations for the future. I wonder if he is so optimistic about his recovery because of the way in which his parents refuse to describe the severity of his condition. I think particularly to the instance in which the parents remove the definition of Johnny's terminal brain tumor from their medical journals - something that would not stop a modern teen but is enough to quell Johnny's curiosities. I wonder if Johnny is so selfless because of the time and place which he inhabits - the era being specifically important. In that era, children were more obedient and common courtesies were more prevalent in society - certainly more-so than in modern society where children rarely seem to show their parents any respect, and fewer still seem to be able to accept illness as Johnny does so graciously. This memoir raises more questions than answers for me, it seems - but provokes thought and questions of the human condition - which is always something for which I search in a piece of literature.This is definitely a book worth reading - and one that should be re-read periodically throughout one's life... I feel when I am drawn to read it again in a few years time, I may be able to answer some of my current pontifications, though fear I may only find more on which to speculate.
—Breanna
