Rodeo in Joliet, with Glenn Rockowitz

Rodeo in Joliet, is a glimpse into the mind of the author after his cancer diagnosis at 28, when he is diagnosed weeks before the birth of his only son, and given three months to live. Ironically, his father is diagnosed a week later, and his cancer journey parallels and then diverges from Glenn’s during the window of time covered in this book.

There is plenty of dark humor and absolutely no sugarcoating. You will see, hear, taste and smell his cancer experience, including the rollercoaster of volatile emotions and occasional self-sabotage during his Hail Mary experimental treatment. And as he white-knuckles his way through the cancer trenches, you can’t help but come around to root for him.

Rodeo is billed as a cancer memoir because of the subject but…not so fast. As he sees it, “I don’t see this book as a cancer book as much as I see it as a father-son-father-son book. I loved my dad and I miss him. And it's hard to get over the sense of being scared every day of not getting to see my own boy grow up…I wanted my son to have an account of that time in his life. I wanted him to know how deeply I loved him and fought to stay alive for him.”

So let’s call it a love letter: a visceral, powerful love letter from a man to his father and to his son that will leave you gasping and grateful to be alive when you reach the final page.