Exploding Into Life

Book excerpt: "In 1978, thirty-four-year-old Dorothea Lynch discovered she had breast cancer. In an attempt to gain control of the disease and communicate her experience to others, she asked her longtime companion, Eugene Richards, to visually document her struggle while she kept a written diary. Exploding Into Life is the synthesis of their two experiences. What begins as their need to know the facts about cancer becomes, as the years pass, a highly personal inquiry into what it means to be alive, to face the uncertain future, and to accept death. The book that results is a testament to a woman's strength, intelligence, and sensitivity as she confronts cancer, a medical care system, and cultural attitudes towards illness and mortality"--Eugene Richards' website, viewed on December 1, 2014.