Suleika Jaouad is in her early 20’s, a recent college graduate who moved to Paris to start her career when she is diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. In her memoir, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, she chronicles her experience as a young adult with an aggressive cancer. Suleika shares her perspective from diagnosis, through grueling treatment, and the complexities of trying to reenter society as a cancer survivor.
I think it’s important to note that Suleika was navigating all of this as an early 20’s woman in the early aughts. Everyone with cancer has a unique story that is influenced by a variety of factors; age, type of cancer/treatment, coping skills, social support, their response to treatment, societal expectations etc. Social isolation and feeling disconnected from your peer group is one of the most common struggles I hear consistently from patients. It was also a struggle for myself and my husband when he was in treatment. Suleika was going through treatment not only as a young adult but when social media was just in its infancy and Motorola Razr and Blackberry were kings of mobile phones. Her treatment plan required prolonged inpatient hospitalizations which undoubtedly added to her feelings of isolation and disconnection from her peers. It was just a different time in society when we were less instantly connected in every possible way.
I commonly hear people describe their network of friends and family as their primary support or safety net during a crisis. But what do you do when your safety net cannot physically show up for you? Suleika was quarantined in a hospital with minimal contact with her safety net. It’s not surprising that her source of socialization and safety net shifted to become the people of her medical team who were physically present on a day to day basis. Suleika beautifully describes this feeling of isolation, shift of social structure, and the complexity of these shifts. For her, she describes it as two kingdoms – one of normalcy with friends, family and peers and one with her medical team. If treatment is successful, you ultimately transition again to another safety net which heightens your sense of vulnerability yet again. Her memoir intimately describes her personal journey of how she navigated these transitions and the struggles she faced during her cancer treatment.
Personally, I loved this book and felt it to be very relatable.
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