The Wild Mandrake
A Memoir
Published on 9. November 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-1-4597-5074-6 (ISBN)
Description
A young writer on the cusp of adulthood is faced with cancer that keeps coming back.
Doctors used to tell him he was cured. That was a long time ago. Ever since he first left home, writer Jason Jobin has had cancer. Every five years, like clockwork, it relapses, and yet he always pulls through. Chemotherapy, surgeries, radiation; these are the milestones of his adulthood, of being "a special case."
It seems like every time he gets balanced - new writing, love, a job paying more than minimum wage - he's back in hospital. And he lives. Again and again, he is cured. It is miraculous. A great gift. But never enough.
Told in short glimpses, this story redefines what it means to survive. Jobin brings together the illuminated moments of loss and joy as he navigates chronic illness and builds from it something new and wildly unexpected.
Doctors used to tell him he was cured. That was a long time ago. Ever since he first left home, writer Jason Jobin has had cancer. Every five years, like clockwork, it relapses, and yet he always pulls through. Chemotherapy, surgeries, radiation; these are the milestones of his adulthood, of being "a special case."
It seems like every time he gets balanced - new writing, love, a job paying more than minimum wage - he's back in hospital. And he lives. Again and again, he is cured. It is miraculous. A great gift. But never enough.
Told in short glimpses, this story redefines what it means to survive. Jobin brings together the illuminated moments of loss and joy as he navigates chronic illness and builds from it something new and wildly unexpected.
Reviews / Votes
Jobin defies the odds, not just in beating death, but writing a book that's engaging, casually brilliant, often funny. * BILL GASTON, author of Just Let Me Look at You * His voice is incomparable, lucid, and irreverent in all the right ways. I will hold this book close to my heart for its honesty and courage and fine, fine writing. * LORNA CROZIER, award-winning poet and author of Through the Garden * How do you run if the killer lurks within? Where do you hide? Does anyone, ever, outrun themselves? Jason Jobin asks these questions and delivers an intimate, masterful story about endlessly circling the block, driving toward his own destruction, trying to kill the thing that's killing him. * YASUKO THANH, author of Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 142 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
227 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4597-5074-6 (9781459750746)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Jason Jobin's writing has been longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize and published in Cleaver magazine, Pithead Chapel, and The Sun magazine. His stories have won a National Magazine Award and been featured in the 2018 and 2019 Journey Prize anthologies. He lives in Victoria, B.C.