Bollywood Stars and Cancer memoirs

Abstract

Two cancer memoirs from Bollywood heroines were published in 2019: Manisha Koirala's Healed: How Cancer Gave Me A New Life and Lisa Ray’s Close to the Bone. Koirala’s text begins with her diagnosis, and concludes with her healing and subsequent attempts to establish a new lifestyle. Ray’s text arrives at "cancer time”- Nancy Millers term, defined as the time spent in “diagnosis, staging, prognosis, protocol,” where the “only future fixed chronology is that of treatment sessions” (217) -almost two-thirds into the narrative, with the bulk of her book focused on her childhood and career. Ray’s work lists “with Neclam Kumar” under the author- name, though the extent of authorial collaboration and contribution is unclear.