Janet & Me - by Stan Mack (Paperback)

About the Book

Featuring his trademark documentary cartooning style, acclaimed journalist-artist Stan Mack chronicles a poignant, unflinching, and intensely personal story of love and loss, and the remarkable relationship at the heart of it all. Illustrations throughout.

Book Synopsis

In words and drawings both candid and human, Stan Mack follows his eighteen-year relationship with Janet Bode, a lighthearted fling that beat the odds to become an enduring love affair. The only thing they couldn't beat was cancer.
As Janet and Stan confront the jagged terrain of cancer, then navigate the twilight of terminal illness, two portraits emerge: of a woman who faced her cancer the same way she lived her life, with guts and charm; and of the man who held her close and shared her struggle. For anyone who can't resist a beautifully told love story, for anyone who is touched by someone suffering from serious illness and looking for emotional and practical guidance, and for anyone who appreciates a life lived to the fullest, Janet & Me will resonate long after the last page is turned.

Review Quotes

Barbara Ehrenreich author, Nickel and Dimed It wasn't easy for me to read Janet and Me because the book brought back my own breast cancer experience so vividly, but I'm glad I did read it, because it taught me a new trick -- how to giggle and cry at the same time. Thank you, Stan -- and Janet!

Gloria Steinem author, Moving Beyond Words Stan Mack shows that a man can be as caretaking as a woman, and a woman can be as brave, funny, and loving in death as in life. This compassionate, irresistible memoir is a gift to all of us.

Jennie Nash author, The Victoria's Secret Catalog Never Stops Coming and Other Lessons I Learned from Breast Cancer Only an artist at the top of his game -- and the bottom of his life -- could come up with such a quirky mix of realistic, humorous, tragic detail. It charmed my socks off.

Joyce Brabner coauthor, with Harvey Pekar, Our Cancer Year Stan has written and drawn from the heart something for caretakers, the left-behind, the ones wounded in the crossfire of cancer or terminal illness. He speaks to those in love now who would also be in love even after tomorrow is over, by telling an honest story about quality of life, dying, and survival.

About the Author

Stan Mack is a writer-cartoonist who pioneered the form of "real life" cartooning with his notorious New York comic strip, "Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies," which ran in The Village Voice for nearly 20 years. His Adweek strip, "Stan Mack's Outtakes," covered the media scene for a decade. He has used his trademark cartoon style in several nonfiction books including two graphic histories, The Story of the Jews: A 4,00 Year Adventure and Stan Mack's Real Life American Revolution. He is also the co-author with his late partner Janet Bode, of several hard-hitting nonfiction books for and about teenagers, including Heartbreak and Roses, Hard Times, and For Better, For Worse.

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Mack started his career as art director of The New York Herald Tribune's groundbreaking Book Week before joining in The New York Times as art director of The New York Times Sunday Magazine and then The New York Times Book Review. He has also written and/or illustrated a number of children's books including the best-selling 10 Bears in My Bed.