Going to the Sun
a novel by James McManus Penny is a college student when she meets David, and falls in love quickly. Penny and David go to Alaska where David is mauled by a bear, and is left severely disabled. In the hospital, David asks Penny to kill him using the insulin she uses as a diabetic. She does; a syringeful of insulin sends David into deadly hypoglycemia. Now it is seven years later, and Penny has been unable to put the incident out of her mind. For reasons unclear to herself, she sets out to bike from her hometown of Chicago to Alaska.
I decided to read this book because it came up when I searched "diabetes" and "travel" in the library database. I began the book in the library and saw quickly that the narration was well done, the tone frank. But as I read, I grew more and more disturbed about the message that this book gives about disability. Penny's attitude towards diabetes and disability is extremely negative. She feels that life with diabetes is not worth living; that life with diabetic complications can not be other than terrible. By itself, this would not be a flaw for the book; it isn't hard to find people who feel the same. However, of the many characters presenting their opinions about the worth of the lives of disabled people in this story, the only one to disagree with Penny that diabetes or any other disability is indeed a tragedy of extreme proportions is portrayed as mentally unbalanced.
Penny's truly tragic disability is depression. Penny has much in common with me; I also have type 1 diabetes. Penny's insists that her life hangs on the hope of a cure. To hope for what you have never known is not a hope that can ever bear fruit- to be without diabetes is not the painfree life Penny imagines. Penny expresses disdain for people who make a big deal over more minor ailments, not understanding: pain is pain. Whether it is really appropriate is really irrelevant to the sufferer. Penny's pain is a real pain felt by many people with many disabilities; but it is not due to disability.
Penny is based on McManus' actual diabetic daughter; however, some basic information about diabetes portrayed here is wrong. Penny wouldn't take more insulin if she expects to excercise more. She should take less because insulin absorbtion is more efficient with excercise.
Cautious reading.
