Stretching The Spirit In Order To Survive

Better Dirty Than Done by Rick Czaplewski— review by Frank Parker

A young man with cancer is enabled to see a scan of his tumour days before he meets his oncologist to discuss the prognosis. He misinterprets what he sees and spends the next while believing he is doomed to die before he has time to achieve anything of significance. (This is not a spoiler because we know these events occurred more than twenty years before he is writing about them.)

I ought to make it plain, also, that this is a true story: Czaplewski is both the author and the protagonist of this memoir.

He proceeds to imagine, and describe in detail, three exploits which, given the chance, he might be able to undertake: a trek in the mountains of Thailand; an open sea swim in San Francisco Bay circumnavigating Alcatraz Island; the Boston Marathon.

Each event is imagined and described in extraordinary detail. The tension builds as he stretches his body and spirit to its absolute limits. He does this despite a deep understanding of those limits. He knows he would never be capable of climbing Everest; never be able to out swim the best of the open water aficionados; win the marathon. But he does want to experience the thrill of taking part and demonstrating that he can push himself to the…