No Wizard - No Oz
We're Not in Kansas Anymore: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the Politics of
Disease by Rik Carlson - A Book Review by Cort Johnson
A self-made businessman who’d seen both the top and the bottom of the
business cycle Rik Carlson looked like he’d really made it when on New
Years day of 2005 he came down with a case of the flu. He got over it –
it came back, he got over it – it came back, and then not long after a
close friend unexpectedly died it hit him like a sledgehammer and he
didn’t get over it.
I just swallowed this book up. It wasn’t hard to do. It’s a great story
and Rik is a natural story teller. With a foot in the sixties and
another in the business world he is an intriguing blend of romantic and
realist. He doesn’t beat around the bush, he doesn’t try to pretty
things up, he’s blunt and he’s sincere.
More than anything else this is a personal account of ME/CFS. The
tension he felt as he waited for his disability appointment was
palpable. His almost blow by blow account of his monumental and
appalling battles with his insurance company should be required reading
not only for ME/CFS patients but for everyone faced with a controversial
disease. Throughout the book Rik guides us through his difficulties and
his successes with an honesty that’s engaging and compelling.
The few chapters on the history of ME/CFS didn’t grab me – they’ve been
told before - and they aren't his forte. Rik’s gift is in his personal
essays and those pop with an energy, indignation and dark humor which
makes his frequent softer asides such as his enchantment with his cats
and his new found love of nature all the more appealing.
Rik was not a writer before he got ME/CFS but he digs deep into his
experience and his prose shines with a forceful rhythm of its own.
‘We’re Not in Kansas Anymore” is a compelling account of one mans
struggle with ME/CFS.
“We’re Not in Kansas Anymore” can be bought direct (and signed) from Rik,
from bookstores in Vermont or in a very affordable Pdf. format from the
Vermont CFIDS
Association Website.
Check out an
interview with Rik Carlson