Reflections on a Simple Twist of Fate: Literature, Art, and Parkinson’s Disease

What happens when our lives are suddenly disrupted by chronic or terminal illness? Of course, science, family, faith and friends are there to help. But as author Dean Scaros demonstrates in this elegantly written and affecting book all the issues we face as a result of illness have been expressed through human artistic sensibility. We have been seeking meaning and solace —— and have often found it – ever since we painted figures on the walls of our caves. This book considers — through the lens of great literature and art— issues that are important to us as we struggle to come to terms with progressive, debilitating illness: issues such as, personal dignity, courage, fear, hope, love, time, chance, fate and friendship, to name just a few. These issues are not physical or clinical. Rather they concern the ways in which we think and feel about our experience. Reflecting on them affords us an opportunity to better understand our experience and even gain a measure of wisdom from it.