Nursing Book Club
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad
A memoir of illness that is also glimpsed in the documentary American Symphony
An engrossing memoir of illness by an award-winning young columnist, whose battle with leukemia is also glimpsed in the 2023 Netflix documentary American Symphony.
Susan Sontag once said there is a separate kingdom for the well — those who take their good health for granted and enjoy life without medical worries. The rest dwell in the kingdom of the ill, measuring time between doses of pain medication or waiting for procedures or test results.
As the daughter of a Tunisian father and a Swiss mother, educated in the U.S., Suleika Jaouad has her feet in more than just these two kingdoms, always well aware that she is not entirely any of her multiple nationalities. The cover of her book, which pictures Jaouad sitting on the roof of her camper van with her dog Oscar, makes clear that hers is the story of an actual journey, not only a metaphysical one.
Mysterious Ailment
Jaouad explains that while still in college, she began to suffer painful itching and constant fatigue, which plagued her through an internship in New York City. After landing a job in Paris, her mysterious ailment — which U.S. doctors had never been able to diagnose — grew worse, forcing her to enter the French health system.
At first, she hoped whatever it was would go away, but the French doctor cut short this fantasy with a diagnosis of leukemia, warning that if Jaouad were her daughter, she would want her home on the next flight.
What followed were four years filled with medical appointments and hospital stays. Jaouad shared her holidays with nurses and doctors, in between chemotherapy sessions and eventually a bone marrow transplant.
During these 1,500 days, she found her voice in journalism, chronicling her medical diary in a column for The New York Times entitled “Life, Interrupted.”
A 15,000-Mile Journey
With her leukemia finally in remission, Jaouad faced the challenge of rebuilding a life that had ground to a halt during her treatment. She finally decided on a brave solo journey across the United States to connect with some of the new friends who had written to her in the hospital. (Inside the cover is a map of her travels.)
I found Between Two Kingdoms perfectly fascinating. It’s not just another illness memoir, although I found Jaouad’s journey through diagnosis and treatment to be the real heart of the book, and what stayed with me after I put it down.
American Symphony
You can get another look at Jaouad in the Netflix film American Symphony, which documents a year in the life of her husband, musician Jon Batiste. Strangely, Between Two Kingdoms says very little about Batiste, but the documentary reveals that he and Jaouad met at band camp in their teens and reconnected during her illness (they married in 2022).
When they met again, he was beginning his own journey through the musical world, from New Orleans roots music to a high-profile gig as band leader for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
The documentary chronicles his efforts to create a symphony incorporating many aspects of contemporary American music, culminating in his performance at Carnegie Hall.
Although Batiste is the focus, Jaouad appears throughout the film, often as she prepares for inpatient hospital visits, showing us the strength of their bond. If you like the book or Jaouad’s New York Times column, the documentary is well worth a look.
CHRISTINE CONTILLO, RN, BSN, PHN, is a public health nurse with more than 40 years of experience, ranging from infants to geriatrics. She enjoys volunteering for medical missions.
In this Article: Cancer, Illness Memoir
