Summary

In words and drawings both candid and human, Stan Mack follows his eighteen-year relationship with Janet Bode, a lighthearted fling that beat the odds to become an enduring love affair. The only thing they couldn't beat was cancer.As Janet and Stan confront the jagged terrain of cancer, then navigate the twilight of terminal illness, two portraits emerge: of a woman who faced her cancer the same way she lived her life, with guts and charm; and of the man who held her close and shared her struggle. For anyone who can't resist a beautifully told love story, for anyone who is touched by someone suffering from serious illness and looking for emotional and practical guidance, and for anyone who appreciates a life lived to the fullest,Janet & Mewill resonate long after the last page is turned.

Author Biography

Stan Mack is a writer-cartoonist who pioneered the form of "real life" cartooning with his notorious New York comic strip, "Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies," which ran in The Village Voice for nearly 20 years. His Adweek strip, "Stan Mack's Outtakes," covered the media scene for a decade. He has used his trademark cartoon style in several nonfiction books including two graphic histories, The Story of the Jews: A 4,00 Year Adventure and Stan Mack's Real Life American Revolution. He is also the co-author with his late partner Janet Bode, of several hard-hitting nonfiction books for and about teenagers, including Heartbreak and Roses, Hard Times, and For Better, For Worse.

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Mack started his career as art director of The New York Herald Tribune's groundbreaking Book Week before joining in The New York Times as art director of The New York Times Sunday Magazine and then The New York Times Book Review. He has also written and/or illustrated a number of children's books including the best-selling 10 Bears in My Bed.

Prologue: A String Without a Kite
Just a Zit
Bring Your Own Chair
Love in the Afternoon
The Best of Times
Indeterminate Focal Abnormality
The Elephant in the Room
Overtaken
The Angels Come Calling
Dancing in the Dark
Joke's Over, You Can Come Back Now
Epilogue: Forever Janetized
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

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Excerpts

Chapter 1: Just a Zit

When Janet first felt the lump in her breast, she didn't tell me and didn't do anything about it for two months. She wasn't especially worried because her yearly mammograms had always been normal. And we were so busy, me with my strips, she finishing her new book for teens,Death Is Hard to Live With.

It wasn't until a letter arrived from a young reader, thanking Janet for her book on teen pregnancy, that she decided to act.

Janet didn't have a regular doctor because she'd always been healthy. For any checkups, she went to her friend Virginia, a physician's assistant. But Virginia was in the midst of moving and so she recommended an MD who examined Janet and sent her for a mammogram.

The letter from the breast diagnostic institute, which provided the results, said they'd found some irregularity. Included with their report was a list of recommended surgeons. Janet chose one who was on her insurance plan and went in for a biopsy.

I remember clearly that it was a bright, sunny day when we made our way to the hospital for the results. Janet talked about the two other women from her writers' group who had already been diagnosed with cancer.

The surgeon met us in a busy and narrow corridor just off the main lobby. There, opposite the cashier's office, he gave us the bad news...and rushed off. His abruptness was so unnerving we could hardly absorb the diagnosis.

We left the hospital looking for a lighthearted way to talk about information that was too new, too scary, too shocking to face directly.

Janet didn't seem to have a self-pity gene. First she minimized the cancer. She wrote in her diary that week, "I am bummed out!" Then she got angry at the universe and moved into a practical high gear. She spread her net wide, looking up organizations, experts, and publications, familiarizing herself with the disease.

She also called friends who tried different ways of cheering her up.

A few days later we met with the surgeon, who recommended a mastectomy. He said he knew Janet would grieve for her breast and be anxious for reconstruction. Janet and I resented his paternalism and his assumptions. We left determined to find a different surgeon, one she could relate to.

Janet again called her friend Virginia.

"I met Janet at a women's health conference in '85. I loved her sexyjoie de vivreand we became buddies. We used to compare notes on boyfriends and the question of having children.

"She said to me, 'Remember, kid, you can't go by conventional guidelines. You and I live on the fringes.'

"Janet had the body arrogance of the very healthy. Illness happened to other people. When she called, her tone was flip. But I knew her well enough to know that the diagnosis had been a real kick in the head."

"Janet was charming, positive, and obviously comfortable with me. Some women are overwhelmed by their cancer. She was herself overwhelming. I was won over.

"We had a breast cancer chat. Her tumor was large-ish, she was small-breasted, and the margins around the tumor had tested positive, so we decided on mastectomy.

"We also discussed cosmetic surgery, which Janet rejected.

"When I operated I had found that she had an aggressive cancer with five lymph nodes involved, though I thought it was at an early stage and treatable. After the mastectomy, Janet was her usual unflappable self."

Beverly recommended an oncologist, Laura. Janet and Laura met and immediately hit it off. Laura appreciated Janet's candor, but her own words seemed studied and nonspecific, always leaving us with handholds on hope.

"Janet's directness hit me in the face. She wanted straight talk, not euphemisms. I told her there was no way to predict the outcome, but that cancer can be controlled."

Laura set up an eleven-month schedule of chemo and radiation. Janet, reporter's notebook in hand, would press Laura for details about everything from side effects to insurance issues. But there was one question we never seemed to hear the answer to. Was it truly impossible to know? Was Laura's response ambiguous? Or did we just refuse to consider the idea of death?

Whatever the truth, Janet went into cancer treatment having decided she was going to live.

Excerpted from Janet and Me: An Illustrated Story of Love and Loss by Stan Mack
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