Remission Quest

""An outstanding example of a keen sociological imagination at work. Virginia Adams O'Connell is a born storyteller and a sophisticated medical sociologist. In Remission Quest, Adams O'Connell tells her own story. But this is more than just a personal, autoethnographic account told by a careful observer. Throughout, Adams O'Connell's insightful analysis focuses on the social structural and human complexities of cancer diagnosis, living with uncertainty, navigating the healthcare system, healthcare provider-patient relationships, and peer relationships. Remission Quest updates our understandings of the experience of cancer and refines core medical sociological topics in important ways.""--Andrew S. London, Professor in the Department of Sociology at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and coeditor of Life-Course Implications of U.S. Public Policies ""With touching candor and a perceptive eye, sociologist Virginia Adams O'Connell invites us into her personal experience of cancer. Treating the reader as she would a close friend, she tells of her fears, her pains, her moments of weakness, and her moments of triumph. So intimate and insightful is her prose that we don't even notice how seamlessly she weaves in lessons from medical sociology, bioethics, public health, and folklore. Every cancer patient, healthcare provider, and budding social scientist will gain from the wisdom and humanity--and bravery--of Dr. Adams O'Connell's story.""--Paul Root Wolpe, Raymond F. Schinazi Distinguished Research Chair in Jewish Bioethics and Founding Director of the Center for Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation at Emory University