Lemon Cancer

Author: Rebecca S. Lawrence

ISBN 978-1-60264-481-6 (softcover)

320 pages

One could say that Une Oifa was born in the wrong era. Then again, she grows up as if she were made for the sixties era. She is biracial at a time when segregation and racism are alive. She rejects God in a time of conformity to religiosity, but at the same time explores the supernatural. She condemns her parents for their weaknesses, and runs away from home to escape the mess of their lives. Ultimately, she repeats their mistakes to continue what she calls "The Mother and Father Wars." In her installment of these wars, she meets her true love Kevin, but then impulsively becomes involved with his boorish half-brother Kurt. When the brothers are sent to Vietnam she joins the anti-war movement, but then rejects it because of the radical violence it promotes, and then becomes herself targeted. In her journey, Une meets interesting personalities of the sixties, and experiments with the excesses of the era. Selfish, angry and psychotic, Une manages to lay blame for her problems on everyone but herself, but still manages to tell her story in a way that can never be forgotten. Told through her eyes, "Lemon Cancer" explores the "conundrums of what it is to be human." Ultimately she makes peace with God, herself and her family, only to join eternity.