A Whole New Life

A Whole New Life is a memoir by American novelist, essayist, playwright, and poet Reynolds Price. Written in the early 1990s and published in 1994, it meditates on the transformation Price underwent as a victim, then survivor, of spinal cancer. After his diagnosis in 1984, the tumor was removed, but the surgery affected Price’s neurological functioning, leaving him partially disabled. Seeking solutions to heal and reclaim his past life, Price rehabilitated himself using a combination of hypnosis and biofeedback. Yet, Price’s survival inevitably altered his understanding of identity and mortality. The memoir also offers advice for dealing with serious physical or mental illness and trauma, reframing these afflictions as philosophical struggles.

The memoir begins the year of Price’s diagnosis. Then fifty-one, he was at the peak of his illustrious career, recognized as a preeminent author and poet. By then, he was tenured at Duke University, where he taught in the English Department with a focus on Milton and creative writing. He had a happy, unmarried personal life in rural Raleigh, North Carolina, almost next door to his brother, Bill. His network of friends and family stretched across the United States and spanned several other countries. His parents, who had passed away by then, had gifted him with a stable and nurturing childhood. All of these factors supported Price’s belief that his ordered and harmonious world would continue to be so.

Even in late middle age, Price enjoyed good health, with some small exceptions, including vision issues and mild joint pain. His health took a turn for the worse when he began experiencing dizziness and motor slowness. He started to worry that he might have multiple sclerosis; afraid of this diagnosis, he refrained from visiting a doctor for months as his illness—what he would soon learn was cancer—continued to develop. By the time his symptoms became so severe that he had no choice but to see a doctor, the tumor had grown down almost the whole length of his spinal cord. He was scheduled for immediate surgery, a procedure that lasted for twenty-four hours.



The surgery was only a slight success, removing only a fraction of his malignant tumor. Price underwent many more appointments and further surgery until the tumor was fully excised. By this time, the surgeries had killed many of the spinal nerve endings that crucially connect one’s spine to the rest of the nervous system. Not only did they make everyday movement difficult, but they caused neurons to frequently misfire, sending excruciating pain signals to his brain. After several more surgeries, Price accepted that he would be a paraplegic for the rest of his life, living with chronic pain.

Price spent the decade up until writing his memoir striving to adapt to his new disability and its effect on virtually every aspect of his life. Thanks to his supportive network of friends and family, he rarely felt alienated or stigmatized. He enrolled in innovative treatments—hypnosis and biofeedback—to rewire his brain and body to better handle his neurological issues. In parallel, he fought depression, a battle he won ultimately by returning to writing, his lifelong passion. Price reflects that he is a much better person and writer due to the challenges he has faced and overcome. Though the daunting obstacles of cancer and neurological disability caused him strife and fundamentally changed his life, some of this change was for the better. Price ends his memoir asserting that he has lived an overwhelmingly happy life and would not forgo any of his experience or live another’s life instead. A Whole New Life celebrates and affirms the notion that the sum of one’s experiences, from triumphs to failures to existential struggles, collectively create and renew one’s identity throughout the whole lifespan.