Unveiling the Raw Truth: Ariel Gore’s Rehearsals for Dying Challenges Our Perceptions of Love and Cancer
Sia’s death, noted both as a dream Ariel has where she and Sia are in Hawai‘i — “We didn’t drink. We didn’t talk about cancer. No storm rolled across the horizon” — and, two pages later, on a blacked out page with Sia’s name, date of birth, and date of transition, was one of those places where I had to put the book down to sob.
Another aspect of Rehearsals for Dying that I believe writers like me will value is the discussion of the language we use around cancer. In Deena’s words, Ariel’s words, and the words of others within these pages, I quickly realized the way our vocabulary around cancer, the battles, struggles, fighting, wars, victims, and heroes, isolates persons whose lived experience includes a cancer diagnosis. For many people, positing cancer as a battle to either win or lose shades the diagnosis with additional, unfair weight.
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