Our Read This, Then That picks focus on two remarkable women and their struggle living with multiple sclerosis: Jen Powley, author of Just Jen (Roseway Publishing) and Heidi Redl, author of A Quiet Roar(Caitlin Press) describe in their memoirs what it’s like to live everyday with an incurable, debilitating disease.
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Read This: Just Jen by Jen Powley (Roseway Publishing)Then That: A Quiet Roar by Heidi Redl (Caitlin Press)Our two picks focus on living with the realities of multiple sclerosis, a neurological condition that affects an estimated 1 in 340 Canadians. In these honest, and strikingly hopeful memoirs by Jen Powley and Heidi Redl, we learn of the tenacity, courage, and normalcy of their lives, and their will to find humour despite challenges.Both women share their struggle to become reliant on those around them, the changes in their bodies and to their relationships, and the moment they learned of their condition. And though both live with MS, Jen Powley’s condition started when she was just fifteen, worsening to the point where she lost use of her arms and legs by thirty-five, while Heidi Redl’s diagnosis came in 2004 in adulthood. Just Jen tells of the irrevocable ways in which Powley’s diagnosis has changed since she was a teenager, and the mental health issues that come as a result of her very physical condition. A Quiet Roar speaks to the slow, but steady pace of Redl’s diagnosis and focuses on her gamble with a specific form of MS treatment called liberation therapy.Â
* * *For more of our literary pairings, check out past Read This, Then That duos here.
