MARISA ACOCELLA MARCHETTO lives in New York City and is a cartoonist for The New Yorker and Glamour. Her work has appeared in The New York Times and Modern Bride, among other publications. She is also the author of Just Who the Hell Is She, Anyway?
One of Time’s Top Ten Graphic Novels of the Year • Slate.com’s
Medical Book of the Year • One of The Wall Street Journal’s
Five Best Books on Living with Illness • Finalist, Books for a
Better Life • Finalist, National Cartoonists Society Graphic
Novel of the Year
“One of the powerful revelations of Cancer Vixen is [that] cancer
isn’t just an individual diagnosis; it has a social dimension that
can affect patients as much as the therapies they choose . . .
Marchetto gives us a vibrant, neon chronicle of her fears, her
search for understanding and her efforts to cope with a diagnosis
that arrives as she’s planning her wedding. Oh, and there’s plenty
of attitude . . . A triumph of imagination and spirit.”
—Los Angeles Times
“The tone is Sex in the City in this memoir by New Yorker
cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto about her triumphant battle
with breast cancer. Illustrated with wit and charm, fashionista
Marchetto packs her story full of details about love, her mother,
health insurance and shoes.”
—Chicago Tribune (Editor’s Choice)
“Marchetto’s illustrated chronicle [of her battle with breast
cancer] is as much about the support and love she received as it is
about her fight against the disease. Cancer Vixen is definitely an
encouragement tool for women who are waging the same battle.”
—npr.com
“My favorite medical memoir of the year was Cancer Vixen, a graphic
novel by New Yorker cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto. At 43,
Marchetto is just three weeks shy of her wedding day when she finds
a lump in her breast. Her cartoon self is sucked upside down into a
black hole. Abnormal cells are illustrated as little green monsters
sticking their tongues out and giving her the finger. She is
terrified her fiancé will leave her. Marchetto chronicles her
experiences with doctors, medical jargon, needles, chemo cocktails,
and radiation with a directness and wit that struck me as wholly
original. The illustrated format lightens the tone and creates a
structure in which wry punch lines can proliferate without seeming
glib. The book is most of all a love story, spiked with jealousy,
tenderness, and great Italian cooking. It’s remarkably playful, but
the passions and struggles are not cartoonish at all.”
—Slate
“This courageous memoir is painful, funny, self-deprecating,
biting, and, yes, inspirational. Cancer Vixen is more than just
another book about surviving a life-threatening illness. It is a
well-defined portrait of an extremely accomplished woman who
declares war on a tumor and sets out to beat it . . . If you have a
friend who is facing or fighting cancer, do them a favor and get
them a copy of this incredible book. It is highly recommended and
might just be the extra help they need.”
—Tucson Citizen (Grade: A)
“Marchetto limns her brush with cancer in a tale that is at heart a
love story. Her romance with restaurateur Silvano Marchetto is a
charming and touching part of the narrative, but the battle and
eventual acceptance of some of the more unpleasant aspects of life
is the real meat of the story. [Marchetto’s] personality, radiating
from every page, is irresistibly authentic . . . [and] the author’s
words and pictures convey humility and humanity with witty grace
and heartfelt power.”
—The Miami Herald (Broward County Edition)
“Marchetto recounts her fight with breast cancer–the endless rounds
of chemo, her nagging self-doubts, her dwindling energy–with a
blend of humor and honesty. Best of all, the self-effacing
Marchetto avoids being maudlin, focusing on how she uniquely coped
during her treatment. Her engaging and colorful personality is a
perfect match for the explosion of pastel panels she’s created in
these pages. There’s a lot of truth, heart and laughs to her story.
A perfect gift for the cancer survivor in your life.”
—Contra Costa Times
“At 43 years old, Marchetto was three weeks away from marriage to
the man of her dreams, her career as a cartoonist for Glamour and
The New Yorker was on track–and, oh yeah, her health insurance had
just expired–when she got the bad news: She had breast cancer. Her
comic memoir details the many indignities of her treatment (the
breast that turns blue from a needle puncture, the holistic doctor
who treats her with corny music and a few of his own self-help
books) and how her illness affected friends and family. Final word:
Marchetto tackles the issues with humor and a big heart.”
—Rocky Mountain News
“Even before its release, Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s Cancer Vixen
was a huge hit in the blogosphere, generating a tsunami of buzz . .
. What makes it work is the funny, disarming superheroine of the
title–Marchetto herself, determined to be a Vixen and not a Victim,
and living an ordinary life (considering that she is a cartoonist
for the New Yorker and Glamour, as well as the now-wife of a food
celebrity, Silvano Marchetto, who drives a Maserati and has
published his own cookbook) and struggling with ordinary problems
as she comes to grips with a potentially life-threatening disease.
Among the central characters is the adorable Silvano, proprietor of
the celebrity-studded West Village restaurant that bears his name,
Da Silvano. Also irresistible in her own way is Marchetto’s
domineering mother, or ‘(s)mother,’ as she is affectionately
dubbed. On the fringes are legions of hip Manhattan BFFs (best
friends forever)–fellow cartoonists, editors at big fashion
magazines, ‘It’ Manhattanites of every stripe. Because of course
this isn’t really an ordinary life: it’s a life lived always on the
fringes of celebrity, a sort of ‘Cancer in the City’ for the modern
woman. Marchetto dabbles in Kabbalah and alternative therapies,
visits a quack, grapples with a ‘rival cartoon girl,’ adores
expensive shoes, and suffers the insolent barbs of the shallow
supermodels who flock to Da Silvano. Cancer Vixen is tremendous
fun, bubbly and sweet and optimistic. Like her husband, whose
favorite phrase seems to be ‘che bella giornata!’ (what a beautiful
day!), Marchetto counts her blessings and loves her complicated,
high-heeled life.”
—The Seattle Times
“Bold and brazen . . . [Marchetto] chronicles her experience
[fighting breast cancer] in a series of cartoons that will make you
think–and yes, even laugh.”
—Bookreporter.com
“This talented cartoonist’s memoir of her battle with breast cancer
is good enough that it’ll have you standing outside the running
shower in the morning, unable to put it down.”
—washingtonpost.com
“What self-respecting, lipstick-loving, high heel-crazy fashionista
would want to be a victim when she could be a vixen? Still, it took
43-year-old cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto some long
sleepless nights to come to terms with her breast cancer . . . The
bright, colorful panels of [Cancer Vixen] belie the struggle
Marchetto faced when she learned she had breast cancer and was
facing a lumpectomy, radiation and chemotherapy. The news, falling
within a few weeks of her wedding day, was devastating . . .
Marchetto makes us privy to the many demons that stalked her days.
She also gives us a peek into what sustained her: friends, her
future husband, even her (s)mother. By the end of Cancer Vixen,
Marchetto and Silvano’s wedding is featured in the New York Post as
‘wedding of the week.’ And then, life continues.”
—Santa Cruz Sentinel
“Facing breast cancer with a positive attitude was the key lesson
[of] Marisa Acocella Marchetto, the creator of the feisty and
upbeat cartoon alterego, Cancer Vixen, the subject of a book
published last month . . . [Marchetto] is donating a portion of
book sale proceeds to the [Breast Cancer Research Foundation] and
to St. Vincent’s Hospital to help uninsured women pay for breast
cancer treatment.”
—The New York Sun
“Brilliant.”
—New York Post
“When doctors found a tumor in her left breast two years ago, New
Yorker cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto discovered that
pen-and-ink can be mightier than bad news. She documented her
yearlong duel with breast cancer in Cancer Vixen, a graphic memoir
that is irreverent, touching and frequently hilarious . . . .
Marchetto both frames and lampoons herself as a shoe-obsessed,
Carrie Bradshaw type, who is awakened from her Sex and the City
fantasy life by a pearl-size growth. The image is part-caricature,
part real life. Slender, blond and a dedicated follower of fashion,
the 45-year-old artist certainly [fits] the part . . . . The shoe
therapy actually helped her survive, she said, reasoning that if
she looks good, she’ll feel good . . . . ‘It’s about having a
positive attitude,’ Marchetto said [of battling breast cancer],
‘and fighting with the best pair of shoes you can possibly
wear.”
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“With wit, style, irreverence, and gobs of humor Marchetto
chronicles her triumphant 11-month battle [with breast cancer],
introducing readers to an impressive cast of characters: her
incredibly supportive fiancé-then-husband, lifelong friends,
over-the-top mother, Violetta, magazine editors, plastic surgeons,
and leggy fashionistas. And, of course, there are plenty of
references to Marchetto’s killer shoe collection, which includes
Hotel Venus patent pumps, circa-1994 Chanel slides, and Pucci rain
boots . . . ‘The book is really a love story,’ [says Marchetto]
wistfully. ‘It’s about my incredibly supportive group of friends
and about me trying to appreciate everything in life. My negativity
is in remission. I feel really lucky, and I want to give back.’ And
indeed, Marchetto is giving back: She’ll donate a portion of the
proceeds from her book to provide breast care for underprivileged
women at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at St. Vincent’s Hospital
Manhattan and to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and she
recently sponsored a day of free mammograms at St. Vincent’s. And
don’t think Marchetto has given up on her love for fashion or her
passion for kick-ass shoes: ‘I just got a fabulous pair of
Alexander McQueen boots. I’m mad for them!’”
—Gotham magazine
“Spitfire cartoonist and self-described ‘fashionista’ Marisa
Acocella Marchetto was on a career high and shopping for a wedding
dress when ‘D. Day’ (that is, diagnosis day) arrived, sucking her
into a black hole of anxiety. Cancer Vixen is living proof that
even angst, quacks, fear of no-hair days, know-it-all friends, and
embarrassing side effects can be good for a laugh–and that
sometimes you have to raise a little hell to heal.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine
“There are already more than enough Web sites and books and
pamphlets and classes about breast cancer to keep you totally well
informed (and totally terrified), but few of them are any fun. Not
so Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s graphic memoir, Cancer Vixen.
Marchetto, a contributor to The New Yorker, manages to be
unflaggingly perky as she tells us the story of her cancer,
starting with her diagnosis three weeks before her wedding. She
gives us haunting drawings of cancer’s victims, whom she places up
in the clouds, still grouped in the ‘cancer clusters’ in which they
died. (Remember Love Canal?) But mostly, Marchetto’s cartoons in
this book are ebullient: cancer cells under the microscope are
little green circles sticking out their tongues and giving you the
finger; the grim reaper wields a vacuum cleaner; her higher self is
a floating, one-eyed yogi with amazing abs. But Cancer Vixen isn’t
all silliness. There are important lessons about treatment options
and insurance (women–like Marchetto herself–who are uninsured at
the time of their diagnoses have a 49 percent greater risk of dying
from breast cancer) . . . [Cancer Vixen is] visually invigorating
and unflinching . . . Marchetto’s sunny drawings comfort and amuse
while providing a beneficial education on cancer’s dark
details.”
—Ariel Levy, The New York Times Book Review
“[Marchetto] successfully tap[s] a well of humor and shared life
experience, painting on the pathos without bumming us out in the
process . . . She recounts learning that she had breast cancer
during what appeared to be one of the happiest times in her
fashion-savvy, Sex and the City-style life. Fans of Marchetto’s
illustrated reporting for Glamour and The New York Times know what
kind of rich, detailed storytelling to expect. Her unflagging sense
of humor in the face of the bleakest of subjects keeps the story
from becoming mired in self-pity. Marchetto’s pen-and-ink drawing
style–and all 212 pages are rendered in full color–offers readers a
realistic glimpse into the tools used in her treatment (including
all 29 needles she was poked with), as well as the entire
chemotherapy process. But what will stick with readers most are her
flights of fantasy (as when she imagines a personal nuclear
meltdown over the way women treat one another) and her lovingly
rendered, appreciative asides on the support of friends and her
overbearing mom (whom she dubs ‘(s)mother’) . . . [Cancer Vixen
makes] for a unique and appealing introduction [to graphic
storytelling] for newbies taking their first nibble at this
ever-expanding medium.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“A serious and uniquely poignant memoir. As a cartoonist for the
New Yorker and Glamour, Marchetto covers the ‘It’ life in
Manhattan. Her BFFs (best friends forever) include gossip
columnists and celebrity stylists, and she is engaged to the
proprietor of one of the hottest restaurants in the city. Her life
is a whirlwind of parties, fashion shows and gourmet food. That all
changed one month before her wedding, when she finds a lump in her
breast. After the initial shock and despair, she decides to face
her new reality without hand-wringing. Despite the Sex and the City
overtones, Cancer Vixen doesn’t paint breast cancer as a temporary
roadblock to fabulousness. Marchetto shows you in great detail how
unglamorous her life quickly becomes, from the side effects of
chemo to the models who see her illness as an opportunity to hit on
her husband . . . Amid this bleakness are the remarkable characters
who populate the life and book of Cancer Vixen . . . Cancer Vixen
is certain to refine the language of breast cancer in its own,
quirky way.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Being diagnosed with breast cancer is devastating enough. Now add
learning this news three weeks before wedding the man of your
dreams. Now realize you accidentally let your health insurance
lapse a few months prior to diagnosis. Then, as icing on the cake,
watch your future husband be shamelessly hit on by models–right in
front of you–while you sit there and wonder if you’ll even have
both breasts a year from now. Glamour and New Yorker cartoonist
Marisa Acocella Marchetto went through all of this [and] she
somehow kept enough of a sense of humor through it all to produce
Cancer Vixen, a boldly told, vibrantly illustrated serial cartoon
in hardcover that will make readers never look at animation the
same way again.”
—New York Daily News
“Even if Marchetto’s illness provides the central drama of Cancer
Vixen, it’s hardly the whole story. This is less a book about
cancer with a capital C than a highly entertaining one about what
day-to-day life is like when cancer throws a wrench in the works.
It may seem strange to call a book that deals with breast cancer
pleasurable, but Marchetto’s is . . . . Marchetto chronicles her
adventure in vivid detail as she and her mother–whom she
affectionately refers to as her ‘(s)mother’–check out various
doctors and treatments. For Marchetto, fighting cancer meant
keeping up appearances: She draws, in loving detail, the shoes she
wore to each chemo session (Casadei faux-croc platforms in October;
Pucci rainboots in November). It also meant worrying about far more
practical matters, such as the possibility that having chemo in her
right hand might permanently affect her ability to draw . . .
Marchetto details even the most frightening aspects of cancer with
wry humor . . . And with affectionate candor she draws, and
describes, her annoying but indispensable (s)mother, a vision in
cat’s-eye glasses and multiple pendant necklaces . . . Maybe the
key to Cancer Vixen is the way Marchetto pays attention to all
details, not just those directly related to her illness . . . .
Cancer Vixen suggests that routine is the stuff of life–and your
greatest source of strength when death comes snooping around your
door.”
—Newsday
“In her humorous and touching graphic memoir, Marchetto chronicles
her transformation from a ‘shoe-crazy, lipstick-obsessed . . .
big-city girl cartoonist’ to a woman with more important things to
worry about. Instead of wallowing in despair, Marchetto fights
back. Her primary weapons? Her art and an ever-changing array of
designer heels. This is not a hand-holding, comforting, docile
memoir. Her sense of humor keeps even the darkest moments from
being too emotionally devastating. She yells, literally, at death,
but still maintains an eye for the fashionable (an NYU hospital
gown is deemed ‘very Diane von Furstenberg’).”
—New York Post, four stars
“New Yorker cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s trip to the
altar took a detour when she found a lump in her breast. Cancer
Vixen, a canny melding of Sex and the City and “Wit” in illustrated
form, follows her evolution from stiletto-heeled satirist to
self-possessed survivor–and wife of restaurateur Silvano
Marchetto.”
—Vogue
“The great thing about writing a cancer memoir in graphic form? Not
only can you talk about your cancer, but your cancer can talk back.
In this smart, funny chronicle, Marchetto’s cancer cells, drawn
like delinquent happy faces, stick out their tongues and flip her
the bird. In 2004, Marchetto, 43, is a sharp-witted cartoonist who
gives more thought to hair and shoes than to her health insurance,
which she’s let lapse. Newly engaged, she is stunned to learn that
a pearl-sized lump is malignant. Full of wisdom and anger, her
story reveals how, through a lumpectomy, chemo and radiation, she
learns what’s really important: friends, family, [and] her adorable
husband.”
—People magazine, four stars
“Cancer Vixen [is] the suspenseful tale of what happened to the
author after she found a cancerous tumor in her breast weeks before
her wedding . . . . The genius of the book lies partly in the
perfect depictions of the author’s eclectic media circle, but
mostly in the emotional drawings, the terror in the protagonist’s
face during a chemotherapy treatment . . . [But] there are aspects
of Cancer Vixen that keep the horror at bay . . . [The] most
special thing is the love story: a romance in a haunted place. Like
the movie Old Dark House, in the most chilling, thundering night,
in cold damp rooms, a couple falls in love. Very fast.”
—New York Observer, cover
“Which pair of shoes should you wear to your first chemotherapy
session? That’s one of the pressing issues dealt with in this
funny, eye-opening and moving memoir. Weeks before she’s due to
(finally!) get married, the 43-year-old cartoonist-fashionista
discovers a lump in her breast. Using a lipstick-color palette,
Acocella Marchetto keeps the book upbeat. As good as the best Sex
and the City episodes, Cancer Vixen becomes a lesson on how staying
fabulous can help save your life.”
—Time magazine
“Humorous . . . . [Marisa Acocella Marchetto] was an
urban glamour queen who had just started seeing a sexy Italian chef
when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her self-mocking
approach to the distinctly unglamorous cancer-treatment process is
nicely paired with her sly, sophisticated illustrations.”
—Bookpage
“A cartoonist for The New Yorker and Glamour discovers she has
breast cancer only three weeks before her wedding to an Italian
celebrity chef/restaurateur. What follows is a ‘war’ with the
disease, told with mordant wit in a full-color graphic memoir that
leaps boldly from the page. Marchetto’s memoir is a testament to
the power of the personal story, especially in the emerging graphic
form, which is used here to great effect.”
—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“‘I didn’t just want to write about cancer,’ [Marchetto] says
. . . What you realize, when you read the book, is that what she
writes about, in the end, is life–which in some cases includes
cancer–and it becomes the story of how one woman’s life was changed
by her experience. [There are] wonderful visual images in the book
[that] are funny and heartwarming and sad and lovely, and they make
you think. In addition, the book functions as a documentary,
providing an incredible amount of information to women who are
facing a cancer diagnosis themselves . . . A remarkable blend of
firsthand narrative and a cartoonist’s singular perspective that
makes her form of storytelling unique . . . [There are] a slew of
heartwarming and hysterically funny moments . . . The reader is
truly transported into [Marchetto’s] world.”
—Women & Cancer
“[Marchetto] details the difficulties and indignities of her
11-month [breast cancer] treatment with a warmth and humor
that makes it impossible to put the book down until you’ve finished
the last, color-drenched, completely hysterical while
simultaneously tear-jerking page . . . . The book is sweet and
optimistic while never flinching from staring pain and fear
directly in the eye . . . If you know someone dealing with breast
cancer or are facing the disease yourself, you should absolutely
give this brilliant, witty and beautiful book a try. [Marchetto’s]
very personal and very human story will help you count your many
blessings, one by one.”
—Rambles magazine
“If you have to fight for your life, why not do it in a fabulous
pair of Charles Jordan blue metallic snakeskin Lucite pumps? Enter
the world of Marisa Acocella Marchetto, a cartoonist and cancer
survivor who chronicles her battle with the disease in a
surprisingly irresistible graphic memoir about triumphing with
style. From Page 1 of Cancer Vixen, you know you’re in for
something different . . . [Marchetto offers] a vivid account–made
only more powerful with her breathtakingly honest drawings–about
getting the worst news of your life at the best time of your life .
. . What ensues is a courageous, original take on Marchetto’s
frightening, yet oftentimes hilarious–humor is the best medicine,
right?–road to recovery, complete with colorful, attention-grabbing
drawings . . . Marchetto’s book is like one of the fabulous
late-night meals she and [husband, restaurateur Silvano Marchetto]
share in the book: a delectable entrée of love and friendship . . .
Friends and family rally in loving, if sometimes outrageous, ways.
Add to that a tasty side dish–and I do mean dish–of the catty world
of magazines and the ‘It’ people who live in it, and you end up
with a satisfying taste of triumph when Marchetto finally kicks the
cancer in (you guessed it) a fabulous pair of shoes . . . [An]
absorbing and inspiring tale of a woman who knows how to do
things–even fight cancer–in style. And who comes away with a better
understanding of herself, her surroundings and the joy of slowing
down just enough to enjoy life.”
—The Hartford Courant
“Let’s say you live the fabulous only in New York (and the movies)
version of life, publishing cartoons in The New Yorker. And let’s
say that after years of being single, you’re about to marry an
adoring Italian who happens to be the city’s “It” restaurateur. And
let’s say that three weeks before your wedding, you’re diagnosed
with breast cancer. What do you do? If you’re Marisa Acocella
Marchetto, you do what you’re best at and create a gorgeous,
hilarious graphic memoir about getting sick, getting mad, getting
married, and kicking cancer’s ass. Cancer Vixen documents
Marchetto’s adventures in chemo, kabbalah, recovery, which she does
with the help of her fiancé, several BFFs, and her magnificently
bossy diva mom. This is no gloomy autobiography. Marchetto is
witty, self-aware, and totally free of self-pity. Though Cancer
Vixen has tear-jerking moments, more often than not it’ll have you
crying with laughter.”
—DailyCandy New York
“[Cancer Vixen] has been generating buzz . . . [It] describes how
cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto fell in love with a
celebrity restaurateur and was planning their wedding when she was
diagnosed with breast cancer and realized that she had let her
health insurance lapse. Her friends–stylists, gossip columnists,
designers–rallied around her as she wore killer shoes to chemo
sessions and strove to get married on time.”
—The Hollywood Reporter
“Within the pages of The New Yorker, among the drawings of nebbishy
professor types and slugs who crack wise, lurk cartoons whose
characters aren’t like the others. In Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s
panels, women wear clothing recognizable to Vogue readers and make
comments like, ‘So what if he doesn’t know Ovid? He knows Ovitz.’
But Marchetto’s autobiographical debut isn’t an illustrated tale of
sample sales and parties (OK, there are some parties). Three weeks
before her wedding, she finds out she has breast cancer . . . Equal
parts painfully touching and hilariously funny, there’s nothing
about Cancer Vixen that makes breast cancer seem like a picnic.
Marchetto’s attitude, however, is a different story. She wears blue
metallic snakeskin lucite pumps to her chemo sessions, and she
cracks jokes about the chicness of head wraps at
fundraisers–proving that an uplifting cancer story doesn’t have to
be soppy.”
—Bust magazine
“Things were going so well for Marisa Acocella Marchetto. Her
cartoons were being published in The New Yorker, and at the age of
43 she had finally become engaged for the first time, to
restaurateur Silvano Marchetto. And then five months later her
world turned upside down with a diagnosis of breast cancer. So
Acocella did what she does best–she wrote (and drew) an utterly
charming graphic novel about her bout with cancer. Cancer Vixen is
hilarious, especially its portrayal of her overbearing Italian
mother, whom Marisa calls the Sophia Loren of New Jersey. But at
the heart of the book is Acocella’s relationship with her husband,
Silvano, who owns Da Silvano, a trendy downtown-Manhattan
restaurant . . . They were married less than a month after her
diagnosis . . . The comparison to another Manhattan career girl,
Carrie Bradshaw, would not be a stretch. For one thing, Acocella
shares the addiction to shoes.”
—Newsweek
“New Yorker cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s [life changed]
the day a doctor found a lump in her breast. Cancer Vixen, her
inspiring comic-book memoir, cannily plays with the idea of cancer
survivor as superhero. Marchetto . . . learns to live in the moment
with the help of glamorous New York BFFs, as she calls them . . .
But the presence that looms largest . . . is Marchetto’s
overexcitable mother.”
—W magazine
“What’s a New Yorker cartoonist fashionista who gets breast cancer
to do? Draw a cartoon about it, of course, and this painful and
very funny memoir is the result. Determined not to cave into gloom
and doom, Marchetto negotiated ‘chemo light’ to keep her hair; wore
killer shoes to chemo sessions, and dithered that her fiancé–an
‘in’ restaurateur hit on by hot models–would dump her. Advice from
everyone complicates her crisis. Her mother advises, ‘Get rid of
your negativity, hon,’ her Best-Friends-Forever brigade recommend
numerous experts, her higher self hovers cross-legged over her head
admonishing, ‘You have a lot of spiritual work to do!' Marchetto’s
account is not merely vivid and engrossing but also a close-up of
what a cancerista could expect . . . Highly recommended. ”
—Library Journal, starred review
“A health crisis provides an accomplished cartoonist with the
richest material of her career. Though there’s never an ideal time
for someone to learn she has cancer, Marchetto . . . found it
particularly ironic that the worst news she’d ever received came
during the best stretch of adult life she’d ever enjoyed. She’d
started selling cartoons to the New Yorker . . . had fabulous
friends, fabulous shoes and an overstuffed apartment she could
afford. Best of all, she had fallen madly in love with a celebrity
restaurateur who somehow preferred her to all the leggy models who
patronized Da Silvano’s and fawned all over him. Then she
discovered the lump, learned she had breast cancer and realized
that she had let her health insurance lapse. From this potentially
depressing material, the author has drawn a triumphant, biting,
self-deprecating, journalistically detailed and frequently
hilarious account of true love conquering all . . . . Somehow, the
graphic artist has taken the tone of Sex and the City into the
cancer ward, with a happy ending that makes her memoir seem all the
more life-affirming. Inspirational proof that there’s nothing like
a death scare to put life into perspective.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Cancer Vixen… [is] Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s Sex in the
City—style portrait of her battle with breast cancer.”
—Library Journal
“Cancer Vixen is a visually electric read, but it’s also a good
old-fashioned story of triumph–starring a New York woman with great
shoes, fast-talking friends and the most honest dialogue I’ve ever
read about what it’s like to face disease. Cancer Vixen is 100%
unputdownable. This is NOT a treacly survival story, NOT an
expected woe-is-me tale–it’s a lively, surprising, and completely
absorbing story of single life, love, best friends, clothes, work
travails, New York apartments, late dinners . . . and, yes, cancer.
I just love this book.”
—Cindi Leive, Editor-in-Chief, Glamour
“I salute Marisa Acocella Marchetto and women like her who not only
have the courage to battle breast cancer, but are able to do it
with such unflagging optimism, creativity and humor. Marisa’s
willingness to share her experiences in such an honest, personal
way is an incredible inspiration–whether you have experienced
breast cancer yourself or love someone who has endured its many
challenges.”
—Evelyn H. Lauder, Founder and Chairman, The Breast Cancer Research
Foundation
“Cancer Vixen redefines the memoir by expanding what’s possible in
the genre. Incredibly bold and brave, inspiring and absolutely
packed with life-force, it’s one of the freshest works of
autobiography I’ve read in years. Part love story, part survival
guide, Cancer Vixen is for everyone who would never read a cancer
book. And it’s for everyone who believes they’ll never fall in
love. Here’s proof that sometimes the worst thing that can happen
to us is actually the very best thing, in disguise.”
—Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors and Dry: A
Memoir
“Cancer Vixen is so powerful it made me cry as I laughed. Marisa
Acocella Marchetto’s strength and wit in the face of such a
terrible disease should be a beacon for all women.”
—Paula Froelich, CBS’s “The Insider” correspondent, reporter for
New York Post’s Page Six gossip column, and author of It! Nine
Secrets of the Rich and Famous that Will Take You To The Top
“There’s emotion, fear and vulnerability in [Cancer Vixen]. Plus
almost a step-by-step guide to cancer diagnosis, surgery and
treatment. But above all, for any cancer patient male or female,
there’s hope and optimism.”
—Santa Fe New Mexican
“Marisa Acocella Marchetto had the last laugh on her cancer. The
New York-based cartoonist turned the disease on its head, by
transforming her own battle with breast cancer into a big fat comic
book, Cancer Vixen. The emphasis is on ‘comic’ . . . Marchetto’s
goal was not, of course, to make light of or diminish the severity
of the disease or her own condition, but to bring her seemingly
boundless spirit into the healing process. It worked. Not only is
her cancer in remission, but Cancer Vixen has become a publishing
hit . . . This is triply good because she’s donating part of the
proceeds from the book to breast care for underprivileged
women.”
—Republican-American
“Your remarkable book illustrates how the power of humor can
transform a serious life event into an opportunity for personal
growth as well as preservation of health. And it is just plain
funny too: Congratulations on a terrific work of art that is as
wise as it is witty. I will be recommending it widely.”
—Dr. Larry Norton, Chair of Clinical Oncology, Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
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