An Uncertain Inheritance: Writers on Caring for Family, edited by Nell Casey. New York: William Morrow; 2007. 304 pages, $24.94 (hardcover).

An Uncertain Inheritance is a collection of love stories. This insightful book includes the works of 19 thoughtful writers who have cared for sick family members or friends or received care themselves. These honestly written entries tell the caregiver's story and give voice to people battling a range of illnesses, from cancer to paralysis and to Alzheimer's disease to depression. The book's themes are suffering and heroism, the author Frank McCourt says in the forward, but love and humanity are evident throughout. These latter themes neatly tie the entries together into a satisfying collection of moving, firsthand accounts on care giving. The book, edited by health writer Nell Casey, will enlighten, inform, and support readers who serve as caregivers or know someone who does. It will inspire many of us. It will overwhelm others. The issues are personal and powerful, especially when a loved one dies in spite of endless medical care and attention. Still, these fine writers manage to tell their stories without sentimentalism.

The book's tone varies from story to story. In "Elliott," Jerome Groopman, an oncologist, maintains a fine balance between clinician and supporter when a longtime friend is diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma. "Beyond any objective tests, blood chemistries, cardiograms, or CAT scans," he says, "a patient's sense of impending death often proved true." Still, Groopman offers abiding hope as he reviews his friend's list of grave symptoms. In "The Gift," a flippant Sam Lipsyte, steps up as caregiver when his mother's breast cancer returns. He undervalues his role at first, but later realizes that sitting beside his mother is often enough. Along the way, this recovering drug user reclaims his own life and "repays" the selfless mother who cared for him for more than 20 years. "I was her fallen golden boy and here was my chance to atone," he says. Stephen Yadzinski, whose musician father battles a crippling neurological condition, becomes a reluctant caregiver in "Call Them Vitamins." Later in life, Yadinski forgives his father's lifelong dependence and realizes that no one goes from health to illness gracefully. In "Ruth," Justine Picardie learns that no amount of love and devotion for her sister can change the inevitable. Caring is huge, she says, "[horizontal ellipsis] but it doesn't work miracles, despite being miraculously limitless." Picardie notes that care giving also has a practical side, which means helping the patient handle medical bills and finances. In "My Other Husband," Ann Harleman reflects on her husband's battle with multiple sclerosis. Her honest story seamlessly covers his state of wellness and disease. Loving sisters vie for their parent's approval in Julia Alvarez's "Caring Across Borders." Ann Hood's loss is premature in "In the Land of Little Girls" and Andre Solomon eventually learns to accept care from his devoted father in "Notes on Accepting Care."

These well-written stories vary in style and length, from around 7 to 28 pages. Shorter works, such as these essays, require a good story and a skilled storyteller to draw the reader in quickly before the narrative ends. This collection succeeds. In the end, the reader cannot help consider his or her own mortality and capacity for caring. As Sam Lipsyte says, "After a parent dies, not so deep in your thoughts is this notion: I'm next."

-Janice Tigar-Kramer

Reference Librarian, Oakland University, Rochester, MI