Janet & Me: An Illustrated Story of Love and Loss

by Stan Mack

Book Overview

In words and drawings both candid and human, Stan Mack follows his eighteen-year relationship with Janet Bode, a lighthearted fling that beat the odds to become an enduring love affair. The only thing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684872781
• ISBN13: 9780684872780
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A beautiful and unflinching look at love and loss...

This book describes in both narrative form and cartoons the story of Stan Mack's relationship with his long-time partner, Janet, and how he coped with her illness and subsequent death from cancer. Two primary themes emerged, with the first theme focusing on their love and commitment to each other. You finish the book thinking that they were lucky to have had each other in their lives. Stan's tender and total caregiving of Janet during the terminal phase of her illness was particularly impressive. The second theme concerned the reactions of the medical establishment to terminal disease, and the discomfort medical professionals have in confronting the fact that they will not always be able to cure their patients. One of the most heartrending parts of the book is toward the end, when Stan and Janet try repeatedly, in vain, to contact her physician (who had been wonderfully supportive at the beginning of her treatment) to ask whether her chemotherapy should be discontinued and what could be done instead. It was only when Stan started hospice care that Janet started receiving the home help and other sources of support that she needed to improve the quality of her remaining days. Indeed, one of the features of this book that cancer patients and their families might find most helpful is that Mack provides a more realistic picture of the day-to-day aspects of caring for a terminally ill loved one. You get the sense that he wants to prevent others the trial-and-error efforts he had to go through to figure out what worked best. A related moral is that persistence is needed in dealing with insurance companies and the medical establishment. Lastly, his is a precautionary tale of the legal difficulties facing unmarried partners. Janet's will, naming Stan as executor, was challenged by her relatives, resulting in a legal battle that took over a year to resolve. This last paragraph probably makes the book sound like it is cut and dried and concerned only with practical and logistical details. That is not at all the case. It is, first and foremost, a story of love and loss, and you will almost certainly be unable to read this book without being moved to tears by the depth of Mack's love and pain. But perhaps the greatest strength of this book is that Mack points out that, in real life, love and loss doesn't proceed like you see on bad made-for-TV specials, or "Love Story," where the heroine drifts off to sleep after a very short and essentially painless illness. In real life, love and loss are embedded in a host of not-so-pleasant details like "what kind of bedpan is best for the advanced cancer patient?" (answer: full-size bedside commode) and "how can I get her to take her pain medicine if she can no longer swallow?" The beauty of this book is that Mack shows so compellingly how love can shine through and conquer all those messy details.

An Outstanding Look at Love and Support

I could barely put it down. It was painful to read, but worth every minute of the pain. Stan Mack is a person anyone would want to have around in a crisis. He is a rock, exhausted but understanding. I met Janet Bode briefly twice. She approached me because, as she said, "I recognize your hairstyle!" I was bald at the time, having also undergone chemotherapy for breast cancer. We ended up having a long talk, and I was devastated a year and a half later to run into her again, and see that she was bald again. She was beautiful, not just cute. This is a wonderful book. I am giving a copy to a friend of mine who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Beautiful and brave

This book is a unique, honest, and bravely told story of powerful emotions, true love, beautiful friendship, and perseverance. The author conveys the wide-ranging emotions of Janet, himself, and those around him without dodging a single one--no matter how hard-hitting, no matter how far out in left field. It's all here--the sadness of course, but also the anger, the humor, the desperation, the sarcasm. It's incredibly real and raw. The illustrations and "comic" style, rather than creating a lighter feel, enrich the story and make it even more accessbile to the reader. At the end, you feel you really know Stan and Janet and you really like them. It left me with a renewed faith in love, friendship, and the power of real human connections.