Unflinchingly honest and darkly funny, this memoir will resonate with
anyone facing the complicated reality of aging and illness in the
United States.
Elizabeth and her mother, Judy, have always had a complicated
relationship. Now they face a confounding illness, as well as a
labyrinthine healthcare system, at a complicated stage of life. Nothing
is as it first seems in this riveting account of an unconventional
mother-daughter journey-a journey that from the start poses questions
about love, life, family, aging, healthcare, sex, and death.
In Bound, Elizabeth Anne Wood addresses these questions as she
chronicles the last eight months of her mother's life-a period she comes
to see, over the course of months, as a maternity leave in reverse: she
is carrying her mother as she dies. Throughout their journey, Wood uses
her notebook as a shield to keep unruly emotions at bay, often taking
comfort in her role as advocate and forgetting to "be the daughter," as
one doctor reminds her to do. Meanwhile, her mother's penchant for
denial and childlike tendency toward magical thinking lead to moments of
humor even as Wood battles the red tape of hospital bureaucracies, the
frustration of planning in the midst of an unpredictable illness, and
the unintentional inhumanity of a healthcare system that too often fails
to see the person behind the medical chart.
