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Cost of Living: Essays
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About This Book
The searing intimacy of Girl, Interrupted combined with the uncomfortable truths of The Empathy Exams in a collection of essays chronicling one woman's experiences as both patient and caregiver, giving a unique perspective from both sides of the hospital bed. What does it cost to live? When we fall ill, our lives are itemized on a spreadsheet. A thousand dollars for a broken leg, a few hundred for a nasty cut while cooking dinner. Then there are the greater costs for even greater misfortunes. The car accidents, breast cancers, blood diseases, and dark depressions. When Emily Maloney was nineteen she tried to kill herself. An act that would not only cost a great deal personally, but also financially, sending her down a dark spiral of misdiagnoses, years spent in and out of hospitals and doctor's offices, and tens of thousands owed in medical debt. To work to pay off this crippling burden, Emily becomes an emergency room technician. Doing the grunt work in a hospital, and taking care of patients at their most vulnerable moments, chronicling these interactions in searingly beautiful, surprising ways. Shocking and often slyly humorous, Cost of Living is a brilliant examination of just what exactly our troubled healthcare system asks us to pay, as well as a look at what goes on behind the scenes at our hospitals and in the minds of caregivers.
Reviews
"They notice everything and have nothing to prove."
"Maloney has an uncanny ability to recall and elucidate moments that couldn't have been very clear at the time ..."
"With subtle wit and moving vulnerability, she explores how survival is dependent on capital, offering a unique perspective on the American health-care system ..."
"mental health system, clearly depicting an aspect of health care that doesn't currently help people in need ..."
"This isn't just a thoughtful, compassionate book; it's also an essential one."
"It's a powerful opening shot, but in the essays that follow, which recount Maloney's experiences as patient, caregiver, observer, and pharmaceutical industry worker, she stumbles before regaining the clarity of purpose and rigor of probing that 'Cost of Living' promises ...The six [essays] that follow the titular piece feel as though they are narrated from underwater ...Among the murkiest essays is 'Clipped' ..."
"This is the power of Maloney's debut, as she highlights not only how internal suffering can become external trauma, but also how capitalism monetizes both, and places a price tag on our very lives ..."
"Nonetheless, Maloney's self-awareness is mostly engaging, and her resistance to big emotional gestures is understandable ..."
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