Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick, and A World Without Cancer: The Making of a New Cure and the Real Promise of Preven
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By CHICAGO LIFE MAGAZINE
Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick, (Algonquin Books, $24.95.)
In prose as lyrical as poetry, the author captures life in a small
Virginia community after World War II. A stranger, Charlie Beale, shows
up and gradually becomes woven into the fabric of small-town life. He
works for and is befriended by the owner of the butcher shop, whose
five-year-old son becomes almost a surrogate son to Charlie. More
importantly, he becomes infatuated with the wife of the wealthiest
member of his new community. When he learns that she is unhappily
married and returns his feelings, he embarks on an affair that is
destined to end badly.
Goolrick, who wrote the best-seller A Reliable Wife, explores the
ups and downs of living in a community where everyone knows what its
members are doing and privacy is an unrealistic luxury. He is an expert
at capturing emotion, such as when he writes about his young friends’
love of dogs: “He knew every dog on the street by name, and there was a
kind of mournful, tender wonder in his eyes every time he put his hand
on a dog’s head to pat it.” While A Reliable Wife was filled with
tension resulting from wondering if the main character intended to kill
her new husband or not, Goolrick’s second novel considers the tension
inherent in living side-by-side with neighbors who may not want you in
their community. Goolrick has once again written a touching novel about
love surviving where it is not always welcome.—Susan E. Zinner
A World Without Cancer: The Making of a New Cure and the Real Promise of
Prevention by Margaret I. Cuomo, MD (Rodale, $15.43)
Many of us have
been reading about preventing cancer for decades. For those of us, this
book doesn’t cover a lot of new ground. We all have heard that we should
buy organic foods and eat tomatoes, berries, cruciferous vegetables,
avoid red meat, limit processed foods and drink green tea.
Cuomo warns us that tobacco is the cause of one-third of all
cancers, according to “Applying What We Know to Accelerate Cancer
Prevention” in Science Translational Medicine. Cuomo calls on our
federal programs—Medicare and Medicaid—to support smoking cessation
programs, and require health insurance companies to pay for the programs, as well. She
encourages raising federal tobacco taxes to put the price of tobacco
products beyond the reach of children.
Cuomo warns of other risks. She writes that radiation from a CT scan
is the equivalent of “between 100 and 800 chest xrays.” The number of CT
scans has gone from 3.3 million in the 1980s to 80 million in 2010. She
says that physicians should agree on guidelines for imaging tests. She
cites an Institute of Medicine (IOM) report that “consistent evidence”
shows a link between ionizing radiation and breast cancer. She says that
70 million CT scans given in 2007 could cause from 15,000 to 45,000 new
cancers and that there is a 13-fold variation between the highest and
lowest doses of radiation.
Where this book is the most powerful is when the author stresses how
important it is to create a sense of urgency in enforcing environmental
health regulations. She writes that our current system of regulating
contaminants is not updated. She says that there isn’t enough
information given to workers about exposure to cancer-causing chemicals
in both industrial and agriculture industries. Cuomo stresses that the
public is not given enough information on the substances that cause
cancer in our environment. She writes that there are alternatives to
many of the carcinogenic chemicals that we are currently exposed to. She
says that the government must offer incentives for industry to create
safer ingredients in their products.
This book is also a call-to-action for each of us to take
responsibility for protecting ourselves. Cuomo says we must try to avoid
BPA in our packaging. She says we should avoid plastic containers
labeled #7. Instead, we should use glass and stainless steel containers
for storing our food. She also writes that we should each keep a record
of any imaging tests we have had, so that we don’t inadvertently repeat
the same tests, if not necessary.
According to 40 leading vitamin D experts from around the world,
writes Cuomo, “calls for people to maintain vitamin D blood levels of
between 40 and 60 ng/ml to prevent a host of diseases, including
osteoporosis, certain cancers, diabetes, and heart failure. The experts
call for a ‘nearly universal oral intake of vitamin D3 of 2,000 IU/day,
’” Cuomo quotes
grassrootshealth.net.
Cuomo also writes that the National Cancer Institute-supported
funding for clinical trials is flawed, “inefficient and cumbersome,”
citing problems in sharing data, funding and conflicts-of-interest. She
says that the IOM has urged that there must be public disclosure of any
payments made to researchers. She quotes the IOM report, “Patients and
the public need to be able to trust that the high costs of health care
and health insurance arise from the provision of services that are
beneficial, necessary, appropriately priced, and not inappropriately
driven by the financial interests of physicians, other health care
providers or medical product companies.”—Kari Burns
We welcome your review. If we publish it, we will send you a gift certificate for dinner.
E-mail to
editorial@chicagolife.net or mail to Chicago Life Reviews, P.O. Box 11311, Chicago IL 60611-0311.
Published: December 02, 2012
Issue: 2012 Philanthropy Issue