Vanessa's Comment:
Rod Norland's new book has received a warm welcome and positive reviews from the brain tumor community, with many people joining the discussion about brain cancer as a result.
Posted on: 03/12/2024
A diagnosis of glioblastoma – a virulent, incurable brain cancer that is guaranteed to eventually kill – will buckle the knees of most people. After all, this lethal cancer infamously ended the lives of Senator John McCain and Beau Biden and, mysteriously, as many as 6 Philadelphia Phillies. But when Rod Nordland, an award winning foreign war correspondent, was diagnosed with the disease in the summer of 2019, his trademark spunk took over and, as he explains in his latest book, “Waiting for the Monsoon,” his Second Life began built on gratitude, love, and hope.
Nordland’s book takes us through the formation of his defiant spirit. If the ability to live well in the face of a mortal threat is the ability to live with uncertainty, Nordland learned to do that very early. His book shares how he grew up with an abusive, predatory father, but a kind and devoted mother. When the siege between his parents finally ended, teenaged Nordland had experienced more injustice, physical violence, terror and turbulence, hunger and poverty than any child should. His upbringing not only explains why he became one of the trouble-making tough kids in and out of school but also how he became ruggedized for his future career and primed for his eventual confrontation with brain cancer.
Fueled by anger at the injustices of his youth and his compassion for the vulnerable, Nordland found writing for a living was a way to hold reprehensible characters accountable. Before his diagnosis, “Waiting for the Monsoon” chronicles his important, historical work writing news stories for Newsweek, the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. The book recounts his sometimes breath-stopping escapades dodging journalist-hating governments, bullets and rocket fire while covering conflicts and their human consequences in places like Afghanistan, Sarajevo and dozens of hot spots in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The book is punctuated with some of his memorable news articles; it also includes some eye-opening backstories we rarely see.
“Waiting for the Monsoon” follows Norland’s book “The Lovers: Afghanistan’s Romeo and Juliet, the True Story of How They Defied Their Families and Escaped an Honor Killing”, - the story of an Afghani couple’s forbidden, life-risking love. The 2016 publication of “The Lovers” coincides with a change in Nordland’s own romantic fortunes and recounts his meeting of Leila, his kindred spirit, a caring woman with considerable literary talent who would be there when the bottom fell out of his life.
“Waiting for the Monsoon” was written 2 years after Nordland’s doctor-forecasted shelf life had expired. The book remembers his sudden collapse, his diagnosis of glioblastoma (GBM) and dealing with some of its nasty co-conspirators: seizures, blood clots, “chemo brain”, and medication-induced emotional outbursts. He describes the extensive rehab process to cajole stubborn neural networks, angered by necessary surgical and radiation assaults, to direct again simple, everyday acts such as buttoning shirts, typing, and even walking with balance.
The book is chock full of history, insights for thumbing one’s nose at GBM, plus comments about the meaning of life grounded in a new found clarity and realism. A riveting read, “Waiting for the Monsoon” is written by a man, a fugitive from a preeminent disease that now stalks him, who describes his extraordinary life and its struggles as brutal fact, not a cry for pity. Instead, for anyone who knows Nordland, admires his work, or wants to understand how the human spirit is able to transcend a mortal threat and rise resilient, this book is a gift and an occasion to stand up and cheer as Nordland takes a victory lap.
- Channah Piscioneri, editor of “The Brain Tumor Guide for the Newly Diagnosed” and brain cancer patient advocate.
Book link - Waiting for the Monsoon
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