Before I explore that, let me clue you in.
It was nearly three years ago, on January 27, 2008, that the New York Times Magazine published an incredible story about a writer named Charles Bock, who only a few years earlier had been my instructor at Gotham Writers Workshop. Those of you who read my old blog might remember how excited I was to hear him read from his wildly successful first novel, Beautiful Children, at New York City's Three Lives & Company.Well, Charles was recently in the New York Times again, and I nearly missed it. I just now (on Tuesday night) picked up last Saturday's "The Arts" section and ran across this tiny story crammed in among the movie ads on page 8.
It seems that Charles' wife, Diana Colbert, was diagnosed with leukemia last fall and subsequently underwent a bone marrow transplant. At the time, Charles' writer pals (and he has made a great many, because he's a great guy) pitched in to offer household help to the couple.
Unfortunately, Ms. Colbert's leukemia returned and she is scheduled to have another transplant next month.
"We said everything that can be done should be done," said novelist Fiona Maazel, a friend of the Bocks'. So on February 6 the Bock friends are giving "the most literary rent party ever" at Performance Space 122 in the East Village.
Among those who will be auctioning off their services, literary and otherwise, will be the writers Susan Cheever, Jonathan Franzen, Richard Price, Mary Gaitskill, Amy Hempel, Rick Moody and Gary Shteyngart. (OMG, right???) If you're so inclined — and I think I am, despite slightly shallow pockets — tickets go on sale January 10, here.
The article ends thusly:
"'The literary world is filled with good and generous people,' Mr. Bock said. 'But then that's what writing is all about — empathy.'"
But I did mention feeling angry, and here's why: nowhere in the article does anyone say it, but I worry that this fundraiser is not about "household help" at all, but about the cost of the medical procedures. I could be wrong about this and I sincerely hope I am, but if I'm not?
Bestselling author in 2008. Catastrophic illness in 2009. "Rent Party" in 2011.
Only in fucking America.
ADDENDUM: It's been pointed out to me over at The Big Book of Face that I don't know that the Bocks' fundraiser has anything to do with covering medical procedures. However, I think it's safe to assume that were we not dealing with recurring leukemia and two bone marrow transplants, there would not be a fundraiser taking place at all. The United States is the only western nation in which a person's finances can be wiped out due to a catastrophic illness. This has to change.
2 comments:
Yes, you're right. Just today, more than a year after your blog, the Huntington, Long Island bookstore Book Revue sent out a call to its patrons to help a Huntington high school grad who has leukemia and whose parents insurance has already been wiped out by the first month of hospitalization and treatment. I don't think we are making much progress in spite of health care reforms.
Ron Janssen
Hofstra University
Hi Ron, thanks for adding your comment. Yes, the reforms that have been put in place just don't go far enough. I'm still amazed that anything passed at all, given the opposition to anything President Obama sets out to do. I'm hopeful that the tide is turning and that Americans are waking up to the fact they've (for the most part) voted against their own interests for the last thirty years. The Occupy Movement has, if nothing else, managed to re-frame the conversation, and that's a good start.
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