I saw this review in Slate and thought it deserved an audience here:

"The title, Relatively Indolent but Relentless, refers to the way Matt�s doctors describe his adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare cancer that had spread from his tongue to his neck and lungs by the time he was diagnosed in 2012. But it also describes Matt�s own creative process, and that of millions of others .... He lolls around and procrastinates before kicking into high gear."

Freedman is an artist and sculptor. "After he got sick, his graduate students in the fine arts and visual studies program at Penn gave him a Moleskine notebook with 240 pages. Matt, who started as a cartoonist, decided he would religiously fill four pages a day for 60 days with thoughts and crude sketches for all seven weeks of painful radiation treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital. (Plus a few more days at either end). 'Even if I had nothing worthwhile to say on my own, I figured I would at least have a relatively unvarnished and reliable record of what was sure to be an interesting experience,' he writes in the preface."

This post on an art-related website includes a look at a couple of pages from the book -- Freedman's handwritten notes and sketches.

You can order from Amazon (using the OCF link, of course!).


Leslie

April 2006: Husband dx by dentist with leukoplakia on tongue. Oral surgeon's biopsy 4/28/06: Moderate dysplasia; pathology report warned of possible "skip effect." ENT's excisional biopsy (got it all) 5/31/06: SCC in situ/small bit superficially invasive. Early detection saves lives.