Manjusha Pawagi, a successful family court judge, has written a not-so-typical memoir about her experience with cancer. Wryly funny and stubbornly hopeful, this is her quirky take on what it’s like to face your own mortality when, to be honest, you thought you’d live forever. She describes how even the darkest moments of life can be made worse with roommates; details how much determination it takes to ignore the statistics; and answers the age-old question: what does it take to get a banana popsicle around here?
By turns heartbreaking, uplifting, witty and wise, Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy is a profound and inspiring testament to the power of love, beautifully written by a woman of extraordinary gifts, and I don't just mean writerly gifts. We should all aspire to confront life's challenges with the wisdom, grace, humour and, yes, love, that guide Manjusha Pawagi on her journey. She is a wonder, and so is this book.
– Terry Fallis is a two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for Best Laid Plans and No Relation
Manjusha Pawagi carries us on her journey through a territory that is unspeakably rough, with all the humor and grace that any traveller can muster. We learn with her what it feels like to be knocked off-course at the prime of life, and to work one’s way back. Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy is touching, funny, and a privilege to read.
– Danielle Martin, MD. is the author of Better Now: 6 Big Ideas to Improve Health Care for All Canadians
Courage. Honesty. Wit. These are the qualities that distinguish Manjusha Pawagi, both as a person, and a writer. Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy is a moving demonstration of this character, in life and in prose.
– Andrew Pyper is the author of Lost Girls, The Killing Circle and The Guardians
... candid and often funny... Pawagi's inexhaustable sense of humour does not neutralize so much as complicate her terror and despair... Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy is full of such revelations, which emerge from among minute details as is often the case with memoirs, but their frequency and richness here is due largely to the author's honesty.
– Quill & Quire
For a writer to elicit tears and exuberant laughter in the same book is an accomplishment. Such is the triumph of Manjusha Pawagi's Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy.
– Atlantic Books Today
Pawagi shares a painfully honest and surprisingly funny account of her cancer treatments and the search for a stem cell donor who could save her life.... Pawagi expertly walks the tightrope between humor and heartbreak. Readers will celebrate her return to health and take heart from it.
– Publishers Weekly
Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour | 2018 | Long-listed
