Title: I Want to Help: My Story Cancer, Depression, and God
Author: T. Laresca
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-434901279
Pages: 20, Paperback
Genre: Christian Non-Fiction/Self-Improvement/Memoir
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review
Pacific Book Review
“You have cancer and only three months to live,” are very powerful words especially when awakening post-op in a recovery room, being told this by your doctor. When the doctor told this to author T. Laresca, his reaction was not once of acceptance, but defiance. He reached deep into his faith and pulled all of his will, along with the power of prayer, to a focal point of survival – to beat the bug. Laresca tells of his struggle in his terse book titled, I Want to Help: My Story About Cancer, Depression, and God.
Without any embellishment and sticking only to the core theme of the story, T. Laresca got right to the point of his message of seeking strength through faith; not allowing a deathly disease to get him down, or rather to win by taking his life. He accepted his fate and accomplished a recovery from his operation and continued getting stronger throughout the weeks of chemo afterwards in stride. When his white blood cell count was too low, he determined what he needed to do was to eat and sleep to regain his strength to fight on. Of course, the initial blow of the bad news brought tears to his eyes; as for example when he was talking to his younger brother about his prognosis after his operation to remove a carcinogenic testicle. But recovering to be, at the time of authoring the story eight years cancer free, shows determination, will, and exemplifies a loving relationship with God, thus giving him the strength to fight on.
Interestingly, in the wake of the cancer came depression and T. Laresca writes more about the devastation of depression than the harshness of cancer. What people often hear about depression or come to understand by superficially seeing others inflicted with the condition bears nothing to the mental disorder as those who are in the mist of its powerful grip on the human psyche. Again, in only a few pages, he moves on to the last part of the publication, that of his history of being abused by police during a civil disorder.
I Want to Help: My Story About Cancer, Depression, and God is a book Laresca felt he needed to write, albeit the message has been written by many others. The healing of cancer has been a miracle viewed by most all survivors, and as for the depression, the pain is real but the descriptions could have been further articulated. The book reads in about ten minutes, which makes this less of something one would purchase but perhaps a booklet one might pick up if in a waiting room. Come to think of it, it would be ideal to have in an oncologist’s waiting room. It is encouraging to hear about anyone that manages to survive the two blows – the bug and the brain – and manages to be so inspired by God, he must trumpet his message to all. May all the blessings be with T. Laresca throughout the rest of his life.
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