Why “Chance at Life”
Why “Chance at Life”?
People occasionally ask why I wrote a novel about a dialysis unit. I wrote it because thousands of people daily drive past innocuous dialysis units, oblivious to the dramas occurring on the other side of those doors. I wrote “Chance at Life” to give the reader a peak behind the doors.
Patients from every social stratum, race, and culture are consigned together on dialysis three days a week for 4-5 hours each visit. Dialysis patients see each other more often than they see close friends and family. A community develops. Unpredictable friendships and romances flourish. “Chance at Life” is not just about life, but about love in its various expressions.
Dialysis keeps people alive when their kidneys die. Dialysis, with all its hardships and inconveniences, offers people a chance at life. Life…Life, holding so much potential and possibility. Dialysis takes time but also provides time, time to experience just a little more of this world. Near-death experiences, hospitalizations, and medical complications are common to dialysis patients, giving them intimate knowledge of life’s precariousness.
Dialysis also offers patients choices about how they are going to live and die. For some people, dialysis offers an opportunity for growth and transformation, for others, the extra years of life provide more time to grumble. Some patients choose against starting dialysis while others decide when it’s time to stop.
The melding of people from different walks of life acts as a microcosm for the larger issues faced by marginalized individuals and communities in America today. Issues such as addiction, poverty, discrimination, and injustice cry out in a dialysis unit.
People on hearing about a novel about the regulars in a dialysis unit, sometimes ask, “Is it true?” I respond, “it’s fiction, but entirely true”. I wrote this novel not only to entertain but also to provoke thought and inspire change.
The release date for the novel Chance at Life is July 8th, 2025.