The Book: Model Patient: My Life as an Incurable Wise Ass, by Karen Duffy
The Story: So, apparently Karen Duffy is a B or C or something-list celebrity. She’s been in a handful of commercials, print ads, movies and was an MTV VJ (do they still have those?). She dated Chris Farley and out with George Clooney when she realized how sick she was. Good enough for me.
Anyway. She was kind of living the life of her dreams, dating famous guys, going on great vacations, getting decent jobs, when she started really, really hurting. All the time. She finally gave in and went to the doctor to find out what was going on. After a load of tests and horrible, painful days she found out that she has sardosis of the central nervous system. Apparently this is very rare and very painful.
She didn’t research the disease to death and start a “Walk for Sardosis.” She didn’t read a lot of inspirational books. She didn’t have this big “I am fighting this!” revelation. She kind of just laughed at everything that was happening. She let herself be upset and sick, but she didn’t let it take her over. She visited friends when she could and had them over to her house when she couldn’t. She went on vacation. She took jobs. She went on dates. In fact, she met the love of her life and got married. He didn’t take her disease overly serious either. They talked about it when they needed to, but they didn’t let it run their lives. She kept her humor through a life threatening disease and then decided to write a book about it.
There ya go.
What I Thought: Usually name dropping annoys me. For whatever reason, Karen Duffy has enough charisma to even name drop in a non-annoying way. Three cheers to her for that.
I loved this book. I came out of it thinking that if I met her, we’d be friends. I have a hard time taking things seriously too and her morbid sense of humor is just right up my alley. I love how she didn’t shy away from her disease or make it her whole life. She found a balance. That is so important and I think that is what got her through.
She admits that it’s still a problem and that she’s hooked on morphine and will be for the rest of her life. In her opinion (and mine) it’s better than being in pain or dying, so it’ll have to do. It’s just that kind of attitude that made this book stand out to me. While I think that most people think that way, no one really talks that way. It was refreshing.
In fact, “refreshing” is a great way to describe the whole book. How she talks about her childhood, Hollywood life, and her disease were all just honest and fresh and real. I like that in a memoir.
Conclusion: If you are a memoir person (and I know some of you aren’t), give this a go. Good stuff.