Laughter eases Barbara Black BOOK REVIEW Laugh, ! Thought I'd Die, My Life with ALS, by Dennis Kaye, Viking, 264 pp., hardcover. T’S EASY to laugh at a dire situation in hindsight. But it's quite another thing to laugh in the face of adversity. In the very throes of aclversity. Dennis Kaye, known as “The Incredible Shrinking Man” to CBC Morningside listeners, does just that. Diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) at age 30, he determines to make the best of a situation which will end with his own death. He writes Laugh, | Thought I'd Die with a “bionic-looking headset,” typing each and every word by bobbing his head up and down. And he still cracks jokes, Kaye’s goal is to raise aware- ness about ALS, a disease he says caused the same number of deaths in Canada in the last 10 years as AIDS. /\nd yet research for ALS remains underfunded. 8.C.’s Sue Rodriguez brought attention to ALS with her court battle for assist- ed suicide, But with her death, ALS faded from the spotlight again. ~ Enter Dennis Kaye, former coastal gyppo logger, with a mis- sion. The mission started after Kaye was diagnosed with ALS. He wrote a letter to Peter Gzewski’s Morningside radio show, describ- ing the symptoms of ALS and rais- ing the profile of this terminal dis- ease. He prescribes a healthy dose of humor for bis condition: “You still may not outlive your dog, bat you'll have fun trying,” he con- cludes. This letter led to others, and then --- a book. Considering the laborious con- ditions uncer which Kaye wrote the book, just having completed! it is a feat. Part One has a certain momen- tum and flippancy that keeps the serious subject matter at a slight distance. Kaye describes his early working fife as an independent logger, bucking logs, driving huge industrial machines, falling trees and getting into any number of industrial mishaps in the middle of nowhere. Then one day, engaged in the mundane task of clipping his fingernails, everything changed: “S got a reatly weird twitching feeling between my right thumb and forefinger. My brain was saying squeeze, but nuthing was happening.” Days later, Kaye was sent toa neurologist (vhom he nicknames “Mr. Personality” for his pathetic bedside manner) who drops the bombshell —- ALS. “He basically told me to have a nice death, and left.” It sounds gruesome to read an account of someone with a termi- nal disease, but Kaye talks with such ease and humor it is interest- ing. From his “preparatory wheel- chair education” at Expo 86 to his descriptions of people as Saints, Zombies and ignorant Pigs, we get a no-holds-barred account of life from the “Incredible Shrinking Man’s” perspective. Part Two is a stark contrast to Part One. It outlines the clinical aspects of ALS and methods of treatment. {ts dry, medical tone will appeal only to those in the field or people living with an “ALSer.” | found its descriptions of orthotic devices and eating strate- gies infinitely depressing. What is more interesting is to read Kaye’s own discoveries about his body — PARKSVILLE EXPRESS® JULY LONG WEEKEND SPECIAL $84" SINGLE OR DOUBLE OCCUPANCY Includes Free Breakfast Bar for Guests Until July 3, 1994 Join us_in celebrating our newest Holiday Inn Expre: 2s hotel. 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It chronicles Rodriguez's dealings with the ALS Society and her failed attenipt to try to win the right to die. Kaye also offers his own views on the subject. By the end of the book, the light-hearted humor is wearing thin and bitterness is showing beneath the surtace — bitterness not so much at his condition, as at the lack of government support and public awareness for ALS. Kaye laments that while all sorts of pseudo-events clutter the media, ALS gets little coverage. You can sense his weariness of life in an ever-deteriorating bocly. But housed in thet budy is a mind which never quils and aman who continues to see joy in the world around him. PREMIUM EXTERIOR PRIMERS | 05136, 15150 or 15930 1629 Lonsdale Avenue Across from Extra Foods N. VANCOUVER 985-6815 FON Oceanfront RV Resort Dis! #5, 35, or 99 year sile membership wm & Fully serviced site up to 2300 sq. ft. 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