What happens when a shoe-crazy, lipstick-obsessed, pasta-slurping, fashion-fanatic, madly-in-love, about-to-get married, big-city-girl cartoonist with a fabulous life finds . . . a lump in her breast?
That's the question that sets this funny, powerful and poignant graphic memoir in motion. In vivid colour and with a taboo-breaking sense of humour, Marisa Marchetto tells the story of her 11-month, ultimately triumphant bout with breast cancer - from diagnosis to cure, and every challenging step in between.
But Cancer Vixen is about more than surviving an illness. It is a portrait of one woman's supercharged life in Manhattan, and a wonderful love story. Marisa, self-described terminal bachelorette meets her Prince Charming in Silvano, owner of the chic downtown trattoria Da Silvano. A month before their wedding, she receives her diagnosis. She wonders: How will he react to this news? How will my world change? Will I even survive? And . . . what about my hair?
From raucous New Yorker staff lunches and the star-studded crowd at Silvano's restaurant, to the rainbow pumps Marisa wears to chemotherapy, Cancer Vixen is a total original. Her wit and courage are an inspiration - she's a cancer vixen, not its victim: Cancer, she says, I'm going to kick your butt! And I'm going to do it in killer four-inch heels!
From the Hardcover edition.