Gorilla in the Room and Other Stories - by Ed Tracy (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Ed Tracy was the perfect candidate for cancer. Intensely motivated and a tireless innovator, the non-stop pace led to high anxiety, erratic sleep patterns and a life-altering medical diagnosis unlike that of anybody else. Rule No.1: Nobody's cancer journey is the same.

Growing impatient and irritable, he began to imagine an oncology ward on a Broadway stage with costumes and music and patients and hope. When he needed to check out of chemotherapy, he checked into imaginary rehearsals of a musical comedy.

Along the way, he realized the treatments made his memories sharp. He began to periodically track his cancer journey and encouraged friends to get cancer screenings. Soon he was delving into his past-growing up in farm country, acting in college theatre and remembrances of inspirational friends and mentors. Each scene found its place in an act of the musical, and the result is "Gorilla in the Room and Other Stories."

These wide-ranging, homespun stories, mixed with family drama and the humor of a skilled storyteller, will appeal to lovers of nature, theater fans, and military enthusiasts and honors the courageous patients, family members and service providers facing life-threatening challenges, aging and a future where they are themselves becoming mentors for the next generation.

Review Quotes

"Ed Tracy has created a beautiful artistic approach to his cancer journey. Through essays, letters, and a clever musical script, he takes the reader with him through several relationships and events that molded him and the challenges that cancer brought to his table. Sometimes it can be quite difficult to vocalize the hardship and lessons of illness and of facing your mortality. Theatre has always been a way of reaching the masses in a communal setting and leading them through sometimes joyous but possibly very difficult themes. These 'theatrical' moments in Gorilla in the Room do just that. In between lovely, honest essays about his life growing up in Vermont, some very special friendships, and the discovery of his illness, Mr. Tracy has written a musical script that reaches a hand out to the reader, saying, 'Come on this journey with me. Your attendance enriches my journey and hopefully yours as well.' The combination of all of these genres of storytelling swept me up and gave me a seat at the table." -HEIDI KETTENRING, Actor and Singer "Ed Tracy offers a unique collection of recollections made vivid by a life changed by the presence of cancer. The metaphors abound, including the 'club' of those touched by cancer. The characters abound, including some individuals you probably know of yourself. The forms abound, including the first cancer musical you have ever encountered. There is an intensity to conversations, letters, and emails that were exchanged with the awareness that each might be the last. Whether you are in the club or not, Ed Tracy's special mode of storytelling will grip you." -GARY T. JOHNSON, President Emeritus, Chicago History Museum

"I love it! . . . The organization into short, evocative chapters, is creative and unique." -H. R. MCMASTER, Author of Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World "With the homespun warmth of A Prairie Home Companion and the fantastical framing of a Broadway musical, Gorilla in the Room and Other Stories is a remarkable chronicling of one man's resilience and determination when confronted with the diagnosis no one wants to hear. Weaving together a life's journey from farm to fame, a master storyteller and humanist reminds us all of why life is worth fighting for." -HENRY D. GODINEZ, Professor, Department of Theatre, Northwestern University

"Unlike anything else you'll ever read: warm, funny, often profound, and above all, a celebration of life." -NEIL HANSON, Author of Unknown Soldiers "The creativity and optimism Ed Tracy brought to his diagnosis underscores this most human story of one man and his journey. Gorilla in the Room will delight readers with a mix of theater dialogue, song titles, and stories that entertain and inform. Ed Tracy adeptly guides us through his personal reflection and physical suffering and the lessons to be learned from cancer." -ELIZABETH M. NORMAN PHD, RN, Author of We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Women Captured on Bataan by the Japanese