Review: Down to the Bone (2022)
Of all the comics I’ve reviewed this week, Down to the Bone is the hardest to talk about. It’s a memoir about Pioli’s own experience with leukemia, and she died in 2017 before the book was published.
In other words, this is NOT an uplifting cancer narrative; there is no triumphant victory over adversity here. Instead, this comic presents a detailed, intimate, excruciating account of what it’s like to undergo treatment for leukemia.
Pioli covers all the stages of illness: There’s the initial limbo of knowing she’s sick but not the underlying cause; the shock of diagnosis; the daily misery of living in a hospital while undergoing chemotherapy; and the new problems that arise when she leaves. Midway through the book, after finishing her first round of chemo and living through weeks of near constant nausea, Pioli discovers her body has been conditioned to vomit whenever she sees a hospital setting, even when it’s just shown on TV. It’s these little observations about the way leukemia has completely upended her life that make the book work.
The publisher’s description plays up the book’s humor and touching moments. It’s true that the book does contain bright spots; Pioli’s supportive partner is one and seeing the way he cares for Pioli during her illness is lovely. But my experience of the book was largely one of pain and despair, rather than hope or joy. There is one particularly difficult sequence in which Pioli imagines her skin is slowly disappearing, leaving behind only a skeleton. She comments:
“I feel like my body is degrading, crumbling, deteriorating, little by little.”
“This is no longer me. Just a list of things to do to slow the damage, a betrayal.”
Perhaps the very act of creating a memoir like this and sharing one’s story is an inherently hopeful gesture. I don’t know. Ultimately, all I do know is that I’m glad Pioloi left this book behind, as painful as it is.
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