[The Two Kinds of Decay 01] • The Two Kinds of Decay

*Th**e* *e**v**e**nts that b**e**gan in 1995 might k**e**e**p happ**e**ning to m**e** as long as thin**gs** can happ**e**n to m**e**. Think of d**e**e**p spac**e**, through which h**e**av**e**nly bodi**e**s fly for**e**v**e**r. Th**e**y fly until th**e**y chang**e** into n**e**w forms, simpl**e**r forms, with **e**v**e**r f**e**w**e**r qualiti**e**s and incr**e**asingly b**e**autiful nam**e**s.*

*Th**e**r**e** ar**e** nam**e**s for thin**gs** in spac**e**tim**e** that ar**e** nothing, for thin**gs** that ar**e** l**e**ss than nothing. **Whit**e** dwarfs, r**e**d giants, black hol**e**s, singulariti**e**s.*

*But **e**v**e**n th**e**n, in th**e**ir l**e**ss-than-nothing stat**e**, th**e**y k**e**e**p happ**e**ning.*

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** ** **At twenty-one, just starting to comprehend the puzzles of adulthood, Sarah Manguso was faced with another: a wildly unpredictable disease that appeared suddenly and tore through her twenties, vanishing and then returning, paralyzing her for weeks at a time, programming her first to expect nothing from life and then, furiously, to expect everything. In this captivating story, Manguso recalls her nine-year struggle: arduous blood cleansings, collapsed veins, multiple chest catheters, the deaths of friends and strangers, addiction, depression, and, worst of all for a writer, the trite metaphors that accompany prolonged illness. A book of tremendous grace and self-awareness, *The Two Kinds of Decay *transcends the very notion of what an illness story can and should be.