Book Review: Carrying the Tiger

(Review by Carole O'Neill)

His first line – “Lynn is leaving us faster than I expected,” stayed with me for days.

This heart wrenching memoir tells the story of Tony Stewart and his wife, Lynn, who spent years navigating through the promising and devastating times of their final days together. They went through several storms and spent many days in the shadow of death. Yet, their determination to find the right doctors with the correct treatments for Lynn’s terminal cancer kept them treasuring their nights together throughout the journey, even when their days were full of pain.

Carrying the Tiger documents the days, weeks, and years that Tony and Lynn followed the advice, suffered the setbacks, and eventually found a way to accept how Lynn lived while trying to make peace with what she was experiencing.

Lynn was a New York City artist who exhibited still life paintings and felt that art brought beauty and meaning to a chaotic world. She spent months in the fall of 2014 suffering from indigestion, acid reflux and diarrhea. That’s when she stopped enjoying meals and started losing a lot of weight. The doctors gave her every possible test without finding the cause. Eventually an MRI showed signs of something in her spine that brought her to her first oncologist.

Lynn and Tony set up a private web page on CaringBridge where they could post information in one place and their friends could respond at their convenience. That’s how her journal was born. Friends liked reading the posts and learning about the setbacks and side effects. The numbers reached over 200 friends reading and sending comments. She felt it was like having her own cheerleading squad. And it was those same friends who made her smile during her final days.

In Carrying the Tiger, Tony was able to expertly weave scenes of real-life along with photographs, emails, and internet posts into an intimate narrative. I held my breath when she would stop eating and he would stop encouraging her, certain she wouldn’t make it through the night. Yet, she would wake the next day to fight the battle again. And, certainly there were quiet moments of joy, like the time they sat in their kitchen looking out at the river as he read her emails from her journal that made her smile.

By February of 2021, after treatments, three major spinal surgeries and experimental drugs, Lynn seemed to be at peace. Hospice was in place as she developed a form of dementia from her brain tumors. Her inability to swallow any foods or liquids told them she is in her final stage.

On February 24, 2021, Lynn died at 8:00p.m.

This tale of love and loss is one you should add to your TBR list.

Purchase a copy of Carrying the Tiger:
Paperback: https://amzn.to/4aAjbe9
​Kindle: https://amzn.to/4ksXMHs

(Read more book reviews here)
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.