I’d Rather Do Chemo Than Clean Out the Garage: Choosing Laughter Over Tears

Fran Di Giacomo's memoir recounts her experience with cancer, diagnosed first at forty and again more severely in her fifties. Frustrated by the somber tone of books well-meaning friends gave her, she discovered that laughter was what she needed. She wrote this memoir as an unsentimental, sharply funny account of her illness, including techniques for taking advantage of the chemo lifestyle. Di Giacomo describes how humor sustained her through thirteen hospitalizations, ten surgeries, and ongoing chemotherapy while maintaining her career as an artist. Her oncologist warns in the foreword that readers should avoid the book immediately after surgery due to risk of suture damage from laughing. The memoir is intended to entertain while also helping cancer patients and others facing hardship find enthusiasm for life and the strength to persevere.