David Joel Orenstein

Love Songs to My Brain David Joel Orenstein

Love Songs To My Brain is an unconventional memoir told in poetry, dramatic dialogue, and clinical reports that present the author's journey as a seventeen-year-old suburban California boy who, on the brink of graduation from high school is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. It documents his experience of surgeries, radiation, seizures and resultant visual deficits, hearing loss, memory problems, migraine and other neuropsychological setbacks. Parts of his subsequent development are portrayed; attempts at romance, formal education, successes and failures in the working world and growing to become a writer. This memoir has a surrealistic quality; it is by turns dreamlike, nightmarish, humorous, clinical, almost impersonal -- depicting the perseverance necessary to confront this life-changing traumatic illness and navigate a path to maturity. It is a coming-of-age story, a medical and psychological drama, and a romantic narrative of the struggle for survival with universal appeal that speaks to young people who have experienced brain illness, their families and caregivers. Ultimately, it depicts how people, with love and help, can get through just about anything.