No Cure for Being Human- Book Review

Does everything happen for a reason? Does every cloud have a silver lining? Are you in control of your life? Is there always a direct correlation between your choices and your reality? Are you living your best life now? Is there a cure for being human?

Kate Bowler, an academic and bestselling author was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in 2015, at the age of 35. With the news came the feeling that no sooner had her life begun than it ended. Her research on the prosperity gospel over the years afforded her a front-row seat to the belief that you get your heart’s desires through faith and hard work and yet, there she was on the receiving end of a diagnosis she had not believed nor worked hard for.

The latest of her writings; No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) delves with such honesty into the beauty of life mediated with its precarity. She delicately presents pain not as an opportunity nor deviation from normal, but as a fact of life.

A striking scene she bravely recounts takes place at a hospital gift shop where she passionately pulls out books by the dozens and goes on to assert to the manager that certain Christian bestsellers should not be sold at a hospital, to people who like herself were facing chronic diseases. Books that say God will reward you with healing if you have the right kind of faith, that tacitly blame people for causing disease and staying ill.

Through the telling of her life before and after the diagnosis, the pain and joy in between, she spotlights exhausting positivity and cheap optimism propagated by the booming wellness industry. Content about how you can and should be living your best life now and cliches like; Everything happens for a reason, Be present, No regrets, Make every moment count and Nothing is wasted. Yet in reality, everything is possible only if you take your human-ness out of the equation.

What if you accepted that you will never experience the satisfaction of mastering life? After all, there’s no cure for being human.

I highly recommend this memoir.