RaveColumbia JournalThe scope of her critique is astounding, ranging from the history of the pink ribbon to staggering statistics about survival rates for various populations of women based on factors like race, class, marital status, and sexuality. Formally inventive, The Undying stays true to the Boyer’s proclamation partway into the book, \'Ido not want to tell the story of cancer in the way I have been taught to tell it.\' The structure of the book is surprising and addictive; the sections are split into chapters and the chapters have interludes of tangential thoughts or ideas jotted down in the midst of illness. It reads like the organized chaos of a brilliant mind fogged by illness and treatment ... Boyer’s unadorned description of inhabiting a sick body leaves the reader aching.
Sarah M. Broom
PositiveThe Columbia JournalPart scrapbook and part oral history, it is an expertly curated museum exhibit of Broom’s family history. It is also a portrait of New Orleans East across the last 100 years ... Broom expertly starts from a time before she was born, enabling her to narrate her own birth and her early years. Through archival research, interviews, and her memories, Broom weaves a story that is wholly hers, without neglecting the lives of the many characters around her, including her mother, siblings, neighbors, and friends ... The memories and family tales recounted range from small, deeply personal moments to the highly public and politicized ... The memoir-historiography hybrid is largely successful at creating an intricate narrative of family and place, but the four parts of the book feel disparate. They are written in different modes and the naming conventions of the short chapters are not consistent. At times, these structural elements do not feel precise or intentionally lawless, which distracts from the momentum of the story ... [Broom\'s] telling of her own story is a testament to what we have to hold onto after forces of nature destroy our lives: family lore, and the moments that hang in our memories.
