From Publishers Weekly
Novelist and poet Reynolds Price ( A Long and Happy Life ) here manages to turn his battle with spine cancer into a tough, sometimes funny, always moving and optimistic tale. His writing is eloquent enough to encompass his worst anguish; but his intellectual rigor, combined with religious convictions that never desert him, precludes self pity. Price now cheerfully calls himself "a certified gimp, in working order." He was first diagnosed in 1984 and during the next four years had surgery, suffered continual and severe pain and became permanently confined to a wheelchair: "My whole body felt caught in the threads of a giant hot screw and bolted inward to the point of screaming." He was heavily drugged and unable to function as either a writer or a friend. In 1987, he began treatment with hypnotist Patrick Logue of Duke University's psychiatric department with remarkable results: "I instantly knew I was free in a way I'd never felt before in my life, surely not for a moment of the past three years." Price learned from Logue to manage his pain without drugs and is writing again: fiction, essays, movie and TV scripts and the affecting poems here. His book is for all who suffer. Through it, with utter simplicity, threads a testament to the power of prayer, which Price calls "the first strong prop beneath my own collapse." He concludes "I've lead a mainly happy life," and, more astonishingly, "I know that this new life is better for me." What higher praise is there than to say we believe him? Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
While walking with Price across the Duke University campus in the spring of 1984, a colleague noticed Price's awkward gait. That incident marked the beginning of the novelist's four-year "collision with spinal cancer and paralysis." This remarkable memoir recalls the first surgery that failed to stop the tumor (which Price imagined as an "alien and deadly eel"), the radiation treatment that destroyed the nerves in his spine and the use of his legs, the religious vision promising healing, the pain-killing drugs overprescribed by unsympathetic doctors, and the friends and family who rallied around him. Price refused to succumb to self-pity, to ask the pointless tired old question of "Why me?" He writes, "The only answer is of course Why not ?" Now, clear of cancer though not cured, Price has a new life not only as a paraplegic but as a great writer whose creative energies have rebounded. Since his crisis, he has produced 14 books; this work features poems written during that period. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/94.- Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The bad news is that this is not a new Reynolds Price novel. The good news is that it's Reynolds Price, period. His latest book is a serious, tough account of his "mid-life collision with cancer and paralysis." In 1984, he was found to have a malignant tumor of the spinal cord, and three surgeries and radiation therapy arrested the growth but left him unable to walk. Although he has not written an essay on illness per se, he embraces elements of an essay as he pauses to ponder nature's systemic breakdowns, the importance of friendships in times of stress, or how to handle pain psychologically. His book is primarily a chronological narrative of events in the treatment of his disease and his rehabilitation. He hasn't written it for sympathy or to rail against modern medicine; he wrote it because he's a writer and had to. And even about disease and pain, he speaks beautifully. (Here's his description of a Valium-induced state: "I was gliding at the end of a very long tether, farther out than I'd ever been from my body or mind and entirely at ease.") Ultimately, Price comes to the perfect survivor's conclusion--"I've yet to watch another life that seems to have brought more pleasure to its owner than mine has to me." A special book. Brad Hooper


From Kirkus Reviews
This slim volume chronicles Reynolds Price's four years with ``the eel,'' his name for the ten-inch long tumor that was found enmeshed in his spinal chord during his 51st year. With little fanfare or self-pity, the acclaimed author (Blue Calhoun, 1992; Kate Vaiden, 1986; etc.) and long-time teacher at Duke University takes the reader through each battle, medical and personal, from the ordeal of his initial and incomplete surgery to the debilitating effects of the ensuing radiation therapy, which left him paraplegic. He lavishes praise on nurses, therapists, and loyal friends along the way, while condemning unthinking doctors for their ignorance of the human element in practicing medicine. And he thanks the worthy; the book is dedicated, in part, to his surgeon. A particularly moving segment in its honesty and courage (although Price might very well deny the latter) is his struggle through rehab, ``a marooned island of damaged men and women intent on bringing ourselves to a state of repair that would let us visit the mainland again.'' Throughout, Price mixes facts from his calendar--mostly records of his pain level and physical descent- -with poems from his daybook. These verses allow the reader to touch the emotional river coursing beneath the narrative that the author works so hard to keep objective. Ultimately, there is something comforting about this book and, yes, inspiring. The eel is removed and Price learns to negotiate his pain. He returns to writing and teaching with a greater intensity than ever before. This is the story of a man who watches his first self die, and in place of it, a new self created; a story of resurrection, of transformation; a story of hope. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
Los Angeles Times Book Review The man who emerges from these pages is feisty, gritty, angry...and most appealing.


Book Description
Reynolds Price has long been one of America's most acclaimed and accomplished men of letters. In A Whole New Life he presents his most intimate story yet -- a memoir as compelling as any work of the imagination. In 1984, a large cancer was discovered in Price's spinal cord. Here, he recounts his battle to withstand and recover from this devastating affliction. He charts the first puzzling symptoms, three surgeries, the radiation that paralyzes his lower body, the occasionally comic trials of rehab, the steady rise of pain and reliance on drugs, and his discovery of biofeedback and hypnosis. Beyond the particulars, Price illuminates larger concerns, such as the gratitude he feels toward family and friends and (some) doctors, the abundant return of his powers as a writer, and the "now appalling, now astonishing grace of God." More than the portrait of one person in crisis, A Whole New Life offers honest insight, realistic encouragement, and authentic inspiration -- and stands as one of Price's crowning achievements.


About the Author
Reynolds Price has written thirty-five books. He is James B. Duke Professor of English at Duke University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in the countryside of North Carolina.

ANNOTATION

Reynolds Price has long been one of America's most acclaimed and accomplished men of letters. With this book, however, he steps from behind his roster of achievement to present a personal story as intimate and compelling as any work of imagination--the account of his battle with debilitating cancer. "By turns stirring and funny, anguished and joyful."--Chicago Tribune.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Reynolds Price has long been one of America's most acclaimed and accomplished men of letters. In A Whole New Life he presents his most intimate story yet -- a memoir as compelling as any work of the imagination.

In 1984, a large cancer was discovered in Price's spinal cord. Here, he recounts his battle to withstand and recover from this devastating affliction. He charts the first puzzling symptoms, three surgeries, the radiation that paralyzes his lower body, the occasionally comic trials of rehab, the steady rise of pain and reliance on drugs, and his discovery of biofeedback and hypnosis. Beyond the particulars, Price illuminates larger concerns, such as the gratitude he feels toward family and friends and (some) doctors, the abundant return of his powers as a writer, and the "now appalling, now astonishing grace of God." More than the portrait of one person in crisis, A Whole New Life offers honest insight, realistic encouragement, and authentic inspiration -- and stands as one of Price's crowning achievements.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Novelist and poet Reynolds Price ( A Long and Happy Life ) here manages to turn his battle with spine cancer into a tough, sometimes funny, always moving and optimistic tale. His writing is eloquent enough to encompass his worst anguish; but his intellectual rigor, combined with religious convictions that never desert him, precludes self pity. Price now cheerfully calls himself ``a certified gimp, in working order.'' He was first diagnosed in 1984 and during the next four years had surgery, suffered continual and severe pain and became permanently confined to a wheelchair: ``My whole body felt caught in the threads of a giant hot screw and bolted inward to the point of screaming.'' He was heavily drugged and unable to function as either a writer or a friend. In 1987, he began treatment with hypnotist Patrick Logue of Duke University's psychiatric department with remarkable results: ``I instantly knew I was free in a way I'd never felt before in my life, surely not for a moment of the past three years.'' Price learned from Logue to manage his pain without drugs and is writing again: fiction, essays, movie and TV scripts and the affecting poems here. His book is for all who suffer. Through it, with utter simplicity, threads a testament to the power of prayer, which Price calls ``the first strong prop beneath my own collapse.'' He concludes ``I've lead a mainly happy life,'' and, more astonishingly, ``I know that this new life is better for me.'' What higher praise is there than to say we believe him? (May)

Library Journal