Dying: A Memoir by Cory Taylor- Book Review

This is the first book I have read this year where as soon as I finished it, I flipped to the front of the book to read it again immediately. I found the book that good. It is also incredibly short at 140 pages that the two readings took one day. The reason why I wanted to read it immediately again is the book is wonderful poetic and insightful. It is one of those books where you know the author is bearing her soul for the world to read and you just have the desire to honor that story.

Cory Taylor died two months after the book originally came out in Australia of melanoma. This book is her walk through the beginning stages of facing her own mortality. She knows she is not going to get better and the only thing that will happen is she is going to die. There is not a miracle drug, a procedure that will reverse everything, or anything like that and she knows it. This memoir is her facing death.

She does not hold back in this book, which is why it is so powerful. The book opens with her confession that she has purchased a suicide drug from China. She proceeds to question whether or not suicide is an option for her and what effect it would have on her family if she did it. That is the opening of the book!

Throughout the rest of the book, she covers topics such as euthanasia, becoming aware of oneself, remembering when she was first conscious, love, her family, and of course death. The way she writes is in this wonderfully poetic and conversational style that draws the reader in. It isn't cold or distant, but warm and inviting. It is as if you were sitting with a cup of coffee with her as she faces her death.

Death is not an easy topic to read about, but this book is so worth your time. There were three really great books on death this year that should be on any shelf- This one, Option B by Sheryl Sandberg, and On Living by Kerry Egan

*I received an advanced copy of Dying a Memoir directly from Tin House Publishing. I received it in exchange for an honest review*