Dear Stranger, Dearest Friend: A Novel

A story of strangers who become the best of friends depicts two women in their thirties who meet in on an internet message board, and realize that they are much more alike then either of them could have thought. A first novel.

E-mail and the Internet are phenomena not fully integrated into the characters' lives in this earnest, appealing debut novel told in the form of epistolary e-mail. After Lara Cohen, a 38-year-old freelance copywriter in Armonk, N.Y., discovers a lump in her left breast, she posts her fears on a breast cancer Web site's bulletin board. A breast cancer survivor named Susan Peterson from Canton, Ohio, responds with the right mixture of sobriety and jocularity, and an e-mail friendship is born. Over the year that the pair correspond, they confront the ravages of cancer and a good many other life events, including Susan's skirmishes with her 13-year-old daughter or Lara's with her youngest child. Some challenges are more weighty, like a shattering car accident in the Peterson clan, while both families courageously continue coping with a frightening disease. The women are candid with each other, poking fun, relaying medical data, admitting weaknesses and prejudices. Their personal minutiae gather into two distinct, believable and sympathetic livesDthanks to Becker's ability to create e-mail that defines each protagonist's personality. Becker knows that the Internet often stands in for doctors' advice, and lengthy e-mails to friends substitute for letters and diary entries. (As Lara notes, "I stopped writing in my journal around the same time I started writing to you... in many ways, all the important ways, you've become my sounding board.") The agonizing route of cancer diagnosis and treatment is so painstakingly documented that it seems the author, a survivor herself, conceived the novel, at least in part, as a primer for other women confronting the diagnosis. This useful and humane function contributes to the book's appeal as an informative, realistic tale of the evolution of a friendship. (Oct.) FYI: October is Breast Awareness Month.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This fictionalized account of the author's experience with breast cancer is presented as a series of e-mails between two women who meet at an online cancer information area. The characters, both wives and mothers, face the difficult challenge of breast cancer. Susan, the veteran, provides comfort and information to Lara, a recently diagnosed patient. Becker successfully captures the fear and horror Lara feels upon the discovery of a lump in her breast and her subsequent efforts to find the right doctor and treatment. The author's real-life experience in this area brings an eerie reality to her information-packed story, which sometimes reads more like a medical self-help book than a novel. It even concludes with a list of resources for breast cancer information. Although the medical information sometimes seems a little heavy-handed, the characters feel real and provide insight into the lot of cancer patients and their relationships with their families. A helpful book for any woman who has ever faced this diagnosis; recommended for public libraries.DKathy Ingels Helmond, Indianapolis-Marion Cty. P.L.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

E-mail may seem like a trendy fictional hook, but there's nothing facile about this tale.

Becker's epistolary novel tracks the developing e-mail relationship between Midwestern Susan, who's a freelance copywriter and breast cancer survivor, and computer programmer Lara from the Northeast, who logs on to the breast cancer board in a panic after discovering a lump. Their correspondence charts a seemingly interminable number of tests and indeterminate findings, until at last Lara learns that there are signs of malignancy. She chooses to have both breasts removed, and as her and Susan's e-mails trace her recovery, they also portray their families and present a satisfying gamut of emotions.