Is This a Funny Story?: A Stage-Four Memoir

A darkly comic, posthumously published memoir about mortality, memory, and the messy business of being human.

The telephone call makes her legs go weak and forces her to sit down: "The tests results from your biopsy came back. They’re positive for malignancy."

Ellen Vanstone, a writer and journalist of brilliance and biting wit, reacts by carrying on with what she’s always done. Making notes. Putting it down on paper in an attempt to make sense of her new reality of drug trials, medical proce...