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DANA JORDAN

reviews

My One Night Stand With Cancer by Tania Katan

MOST OF US WOULD AGREE

that cancer is not a laughing matter. It’s not funny in the least. In fact, it’s the opposite of funny—it sucks. But maybe we’re missing something. Our ancestors, after all, seemed to understand that laughter is not only good for the soul, it’s also good for the body. e Book of Proverbs references the healing power of humor. Ancient Greek physicians prescribed visits to comedians for their patients. Clowns were high-ranking members of many Native American tribes. And more recently, Tania Katan, in her book My One-Night Stand With Cancer, describes how humor helped her defeat breast cancer not once, but twice. Tania was as terri ed as any cancer patient when she was diagnosed at the age of 20… and then again at age 30. In fact, she even contemplated ending her life. But when her mother’s kleptomania of waiting room magazines ramped up to an absurd level, Tania found herself smiling. And when her best friend suggested they mock everything to do with breast cancer instead of shying away from it (they said things like “breast wishes instead of “best wishes” and “that’s the breast idea I’ve heard!”), she found that its terrible power over her was diminished.

She discovered other things about her battle to mock, too. When an operating room nurse asked her to mark on a diagram of the human body an “X” over the breast that the surgeon should remove, Tania was abbergasted. “He doesn’t know which one he’ll be removing?” she asked. en, instead of the “X,” Tania drew a scar on the right breast with an arrow pointing to her left breast with the caption “Repeat Performance.”

Tania’s story is both hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. But isn’t that how life is? We all experience struggles that are hard to bear; Tania allows us to see that sometimes we need to laugh hard at life. w