The Caregiver's Tale

Our healthcare system has placed the burden of caring for the ill squarely on the shoulders of family members. In order to understand what this means for the caretakers and for our society, Ann Burack-Weiss has taken us into the heart of the caretaking experience. Using a treasure-trove of memoirs, she has developed an insightful and moving analysis that is complemented by crisp thumbnail sketches of her 100 sources. Caretakers, healthcare providers, and people concerned about illness will find this book presents a new and crucial angle on the life struggles of people who give care. -- Mindy Thompson Fullilove, professor of clinical psychiatry and public health, New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University In The Caregiver's Tale, Ann Burack-Weiss catalogues, analyzes, and honors the caring lives of family and friends of the ill. What an accomplishment to bring to our eyes and awareness the hidden suffering and profound rewards of those whose lives are transformed by the illnesses of others. This book is a germinal study in life-writing theory and narrative medicine that will speak with power to health care professionals and to all who live around illness and dying. -- Rita Charon, director, Program in Narrative Medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons

Offers insight and comfort to individuals caring for a loved one and is useful for health care professionals. This book describes how the illness career and social meaning of cancer, dementia, HIV/AIDS, mental illness, and chemical dependence affect the caregiving experience. It provides a bibliography of various memoirs.Ann Burack-Weiss explores a rich variety of published memoirs by authors who cared for ill or disabled family members. Contrary to the common belief that caregiving is nothing more than a stressful situation to be endured, memoirs describe a life transforming experience-self-discovery, a reordering of one's priorities, and a changed view of the world. The Caregiver's Tale offers insight and comfort to individuals caring for a loved one and is a valuable resource for all health care professionals. Identifying common themes, Burack-Weiss describes how the illness career and social meaning of cancer, dementia, HIV/AIDS, mental illness, and chemical dependence affect the caregiving experience. She applies the same method to an examination of family roles: parents caring for ailing children, couples and siblings caring for one another, and adult children caring for aging parents. Jamaica Kincaid, Sue Miller, Paul Monette, Kenzaburo Oe, and Philip Roth are among the many authors who share their caregiving stories. Burack-Weiss provides an annotated bibliography of the more than one hundred memoirs and an accompanying chart to help readers locate those of greatest interest to them.