ABSTRACT
Susanna Egan noted that memoirs of dying emphasize ‘illness, pain and imminent death as crucial to the processes of that life’, an assertion which readers may find confronting or even gratuitous. In addition, Cory Taylor’s memoir charts how she moves from fear and intense sadness to resignation and acceptance, stating that she soon grew ‘used to dying’. Her main fear is, indeed, not death itself but – again, as the research suggests – of not having a good death. If a definition of a good death revolves around the dying person retaining ‘control, autonomy, and independence’, as in many other ways, John ‘Chris’ O’Brien both models these characteristics and is afforded treatment which allows him to maintain them. In vivid contrast to O’Brien’s never-give-up attitude, Moran models a compliant acceptance of his impending death from the moment of the diagnosis.
