Table Of ContentDiagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, six years ago,
Mike Marqusee was at frst reluctant to write about such a private
condition. But he came to realize that writing provided a precious conti-
nuity with his work before the disease. It also allowed him to address a
variety of insidious platitudes that surround illness, often connected to
the individualistic idea that the sufferer must be “brave”.
And so Marqusee began to write about his symptoms and feelings,
the responses of friends to the news that he was ill, and the way these
refected broader attitudes. He described the political struggles occurring
in the London hospital that continues to care for him, and the crisis in
Britain’s National Health Service (NHS). Big Pharma, whose drugs keep
Marqusee alive but which are sold to the NHS at extortionate prices,
fell under particularly astringent scrutiny.
The observations about cancer in these pages are never trite or
sentimental. Rather they are acute, impassioned and political. And they
convey important, shared truths, both personal and social, about an T H E P R I C E O F
illness that will affect one in three people.
E X P E R I E N C E
M I K E M A R Q U S E E is an American-born writer, journalist and
political activist who has lived in Britain since 1971. He is the author of
W R I T I N G S
numerous books including If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-
Zionist Jew, Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan and the Sixties, Redemption
Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties, Anyone but England: O N L I V I N G
An Outsider Looks at English Cricket, a novel, Slow Turn, and a
collection of poetry, Street Music.
W I T H C A N C E R
OR Books
www.orbooks.com
Cover design by Bathcat Ltd.
M I K E M A R Q U S E E
Cover photograph © Picsfve
T H E P R I C E O F E X P E R I E N C E M I K E M A R Q U S E E
Diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, six years ago,
Mike Marqusee was at frst reluctant to write about such a private
condition. But he came to realize that writing provided a precious conti-
nuity with his work before the disease. It also allowed him to address a
variety of insidious platitudes that surround illness, often connected to
the individualistic idea that the sufferer must be “brave.”
And so Marqusee began to write about his symptoms and feelings,
the responses of friends to the news that he was ill, and the way these
refected broader attitudes. He described the political struggles occurring
in the London hospital that continues to care for him, and the crisis in
Britain’s National Health Service (NHS). Big Pharma, whose drugs keep
Marqusee alive but which are sold to the NHS at extortionate prices,
fell under particularly astringent scrutiny.
The observations about cancer in these pages are never trite or
sentimental. Rather they are acute, impassioned, and political. And
they convey important, shared truths, both personal and social, about T H E P R I C E O F
an illness that will affect one in three people.
E X P E R I E N C E
M I K E M A R Q U S E E is an American-born writer, journalist, and
political activist who has lived in Britain since 1971. He is the author of
W R I T I N G S
numerous books including If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-
Zionist Jew, Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan and the Sixties, Redemption
Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties, Anyone but England: O N L I V I N G
An Outsider Looks at English Cricket, a novel, Slow Turn, and a
collection of poetry, Street Music.
W I T H C A N C E R
OR Books
www.orbooks.com
Cover design by Bathcat Ltd.
M I K E M A R Q U S E E
Cover photograph © Picsfve
T H E P R I C E O F E X P E R I E N C E M I K E M A R Q U S E E
T H E P R I C E O F E X P E R I E N C E
A L S O B Y M I K E M A R Q U S E E
Anyone But England:
An Outsider Looks at English Cricket
War Minus the Shooting: A Journey through South Asia
during Cricket’s World Cup
Redemption Song:
Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties
Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan and the 1960s
If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew
Saved by a Wandering Mind (poems)
Street Music (poems)
For an archive of the author’s writings
see www.mikemarqusee.com
T H E P R I C E O F E X P E R I E N C E
W R I T I N G S O N
L I V I N G W I T H C A N C E R
M I K E M A R Q U S E E
OR Books
New York • London
© 2014 Mike Marqusee
Published by OR Books, New York and London
Visit our website at www.orbooks.com
First printing 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except brief
passages for review purposes.
ISBN 978-1-939293-44-2 paperback
ISBN 978-1-939293-45-9 e-book
This book is set in Stempel Garamond.
Text design by Bathcat Ltd. Typeset by Lapiz Digital, Chennai, India.
Printed by BookMobile in the US and CPI Books Ltd in the UK.
C O N T E N T S
9 An Introduction
19 Prologue: The Hospital’s Story
27 A Conscript in the “War on Cancer”
37 A Tale of Two Health Systems
45 The Politics of Hypocrisy
53 False Economies
61 An Education in Dependency
67 The Complicated Business of Surviving
79 Memento Mori
83 A Crisis Contrived
87 Talking About Cancer
93 Surprisingly, I’m Still Alive
97 Held Hostage by Big Pharma
105 Credits
What is the price of Experience do men buy it for a song
Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No it is bought with the price
Of all that a man hath his house his wife his children
Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy
And in the witherd feld where the farmer plows for bread in vain
It is an easy thing to triumph in the summers sun
And in the vintage & to sing on the waggon loaded with corn
It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afficted
To speak the laws of prudence to the houseless wanderer . . .
It is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity:
Thus could I sing & thus rejoice, but it is not so with me!
—William Blake, The Four Zoas
