The Two Kinds of Decay

The Two Kinds of Decay - Paperback

$17.00
$17.00
Skip to product information
The Two Kinds of Decay
  • The Two Kinds of Decay
The Two Kinds of Decay - Paperback

The Two Kinds of Decay - Paperback

by Sarah Manguso
$17.00
$17.00

Book Overview

"Manguso has produced a remarkable, clear-eyed account that turns horror into something humane and beautiful."--The New York Times Book Review

A book of tremendous grace and self-awareness, Sarah Manguso's The Two Kinds of Decay transcends the very notion of what an illness story can and should be.

The events that began in 1995 might keep happening to me as long as things can happen to me. Think of deep space, through which heavenly bodies fly forever. They fly until they change into new forms, simpler forms, with ever fewer qualities and increasingly beautiful names.

There are names for things in spacetime that are nothing, for things that are less than nothing. White dwarfs, red giants, black holes, singularities.

But even then, in their less-than-nothing state, they keep happening.

At twenty-one, just starting to comprehend the puzzles of adulthood, Sarah Manguso was faced with another: a wildly unpredictable disease that appeared suddenly and tore through her twenties, vanishing and then returning, paralyzing her for weeks at a time, programming her first to expect nothing from life and then, furiously, to expect everything. In this captivating story, Manguso recalls her nine-year struggle: arduous blood cleansings, collapsed veins, multiple chest catheters, the deaths of friends and strangers, addiction, depression, and, worst of all for a writer, the trite metaphors that accompany prolonged illness.
ISBN9780312428440
Author Sarah Manguso
PublisherSt. Martins Press-3PL
GenreBiography
FormatPaperback
PublishedMay 2009
LanguageENG- English
Pages192
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Biography & Autobiography Nonfiction

1% fer Each of the Seven Seas

Every purchase sends 7% of our profits to The Ocean Cleanup. No fine print, no opt-in — just how we sail.

Whoever Ye Be, Welcome Aboard

Queer lit, music, art, philosophy, fiction — stories for every kind of soul. Come as ye are, matey.

More by Sarah Manguso

The Two Kinds of Decay

The Two Kinds of Decay - Paperback

The Two Kinds of Decay - Paperback

By Sarah Manguso

About Sarah Manguso

Sarah Manguso is the author of nine books, including the novel Very Cold People, a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. Manguso is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Hodder Fellowship, and the Rome Prize. She lives in Los Angeles.

You may also like