"The death of a child," writes Myra Bluebond-Langner, "poignantly underlines the impact of social and cultural factors on the way that we die and the way that we permit others to die." In a moving drama constructed from her observations of leukemic children, aged three to nine, in a hospital ward, she shows how the children come to know they are dying, how and why they attempt to conceal this knowledge from their parents and the medical staff, and how these adults in turn try to conceal from the children their awareness of the child's impending death.

About the Author
Myra Bluebond-Langner is professor emerita at University College London and Board of Governors Professor of Anthropology Emerita at Rutgers University. She is also the author of In the Shadow of Illness: Parents and Siblings of the Chronically Ill Child (Princeton).

Reviews
Winner of the 1997 Charles A. Corr Award in Literature "To present the child's view is always refreshing and, even if the children are dying of leukemia, their ways of adapting to, denying, subverting, ignoring the hospital's social structure, and otherwise trying to maintain their real values in the face of death, are so authentic that they give zest and dignity to a world that is catastrophic for the children and their families...One closes this interesting, tender book with a wish that the adults could do their jobs as well as the children do their dying."--American Journal of Psychiatry "[A] convincing case for training of health professionals dealing with the terminally ill while recognizing the social constraints upon all involved. This is an exceptional and sympathetic study.'"--Library Journal



Book Information
ISBN 9780691028200
Author Myra Bluebond-Langner
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press
Weight(grams) 340g