Cathedral: An Illness and a Healing - Hardcover

Henderson, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1888889756 ISBN 13: 9781888889758

Publisher: Pushcart Press, 2014

Synopsis

“This is the story about an aging man who builds a holy place in his backyard. It involves bugs, lousy weather, cancer and spiritual waverings.”

Thus begins Bill Henderson’s Cathedral: An Illness and a Healing, a memoir about cancer and construction.

On the face of it Cathedral is most akin to Henderson’s Tower: Faith, Vertigo and Amateur Construction (FSG), a Thoreau-esque chronicle of building a tall structure on the grounds of his hilltop property in Maine. But Cathedral is more overtly a spiritual memoir like his Simple Gifts: One Man’s Search for Grace (S&S), a tribute to the pleasures of singing hymns.

Like all his books, Cathedral is equal parts wisdom, self-deprecation, laughs, aching honesty, and inspiration. And, like his cathedral itself, it is lovingly constructed.

About this title

About the Author:

Bill Henderson is the founder and editor of the Pushcart Prize. He received the 2006 National Book Critic Circle’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Poets & Writers / Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award. He is also the author of several memoirs, including All My Dogs: A Life. The founder of the Lead Pencil Club, Henderson lives on Long Island and In Maine where he runs the Pushcart bookstore – “the world’s smallest bookstore.”

Review:

“Pushcart Prize editor Bill Henderson has written a tale of faith and survival, a fascinating history of cathedral building, life in a small town in Maine and the struggle against cancer and the "pride" of despair. But most moving is that of a man's faith in love and family and the regeneration hope brings. It's a memorable and inspiring book.”
- Philip Schultz, Pulitzer Prize winning author of My Dylexia and The Wherewithal

“A pithy, poignant chronicle about the abbeys we build in duress and inspiration.”
- Edward Hoagland

About this edition

• Publisher: Pushcart Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1888889756
• ISBN 13: 9781888889758
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160