Impossible Choices, The Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny
January 14, 2008
TV writer Queller (The Gilmore Girls
) was 31, single and healthy when her mother succumbed to ovarian cancer at the age of 58, having battled breast cancer six years earlier. Queller chronicles her mother's long and anguished struggle in vivid detail. After her mother's death, at the suggestion of an acquaintance, Queller opted to discover whether she carries the breast cancer gene; indeed, she tested positive for the BRCA-1 gene mutation, which gave her an 87% chance of breast cancer before age 50 and a 44% chance of ovarian cancer in her lifetime. With this knowledge in hand, Queller began the journey toward her pivotal choice: a prophylactic double mastectomy at age 35. Along the way she traveled between the West Coast and New York City, seeking medical opinions, information and unsuccessfully—but not for lack of trying—a man she can love who will father her children before she follows up with voluntary surgery to remove her ovaries. This Hollywood writer's story is seamless and gripping; readers will be rooting for Queller and her heroic decision to confront her genetic destiny.
Starred review from February 1, 2008
Two weeks after Queller's maternal grandmother died from kidney failure, her mother was diagnosed with metastasized ovarian cancer. Eleven months after she, too, died, Queller, single and in her thirties, got tested for the "breast cancer gene" mutation (BRCA). Her results came back positive. Queller, who planned eventually to marry and have children, figured the cancer would come in the latter half of her life. But after doing some research and talking with medical experts and breast cancer survivorsmany with her same genetic mutation, BRCA-1she realized the cancer could strike at any time and that she would need either "vigilant surveillance and hope for the best" or undergo radical surgery. The experience of her mother's sufferingalong with her own bravery and strong will to surviveled her to decide on a prophylactic double mastectomy (she has decided to put off having her ovaries removed until after she has the children for whom she hopes). Queller has written a vivid, powerful, informative account of a difficult situation and an almost impossible decision (hers is one with which not all medical authorities would agree) with honesty and grace. Highly recommended for all public library and consumer health collections.Marcia Welsh, Dartmouth Coll. Libs., Hanover, NH
Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
March 1, 2008
Natalie Wood look-alike TV-scripter Queller was 35 in 2004, when she tested positive for the BRCA mutation, a genetic disorder primarily of Ashkenazi Jews that had caused her mothers fatal cancer. To deal with 87 percent likelihood of developing breast canceror 44 percent for the ovarian cancer to which her mother succumbedshe discovered that she had to challenge her and societys standards of beauty and sexuality. Women sharing her background learned that of all the attributes, beauty came first, and a Hollywood-lovely fashion-designer mom told her that at one point she had accepted only chemo treatments that did not cause hair loss. Queller embraced her mothers love for superficially lovely possessions, which was not great preparation for preventive mastectomy, albeit with reconstruction. But eventually she founded a BRCA-positive womens Web site, wrote an article, was interviewed by Cokie Roberts on national TV about her preventive mastectomy, and learned, post-op, that she had had precancerous right-breast abnormalities. Whether at risk similar to Quellers or not, many may find her beautifully textured account impossible to put down.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)