Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther

When Mrs. Noble told us we had to read a non-fiction book as one of our three books this semester I didn't know what I was going to do. I don't usually read non-fiction because I find it boring. I decided to read the non-fiction book first to get it over with. I had no idea what kind of book I wanted to read because I didn't want to be bored as I was reading it. I went home and asked my dad what he recommended and he brought me Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther. Whenever my dad would talk about it I always figured it was a fiction book, but it's a memoir. It was written in 1949. The author's son, Johnny Gunther, died of a brain tumor at the age of seventeen. His father wanted to tell the story of what happened to him, but he didn't want it to be a book on a sickness, he wanted to show people how spirited and positive Johnny was from the time when he was diagnosed to when he died.

Even though I am only 30 pages into the book, through the writing I can tell how much the author loved his son. The author took me right into the story and I feel like I am there getting to know Johnny as he grows. I'm interested to read more about his life and everything he went through to try and survive the illness that, at this time, doctors didn't know much about. I'm excited to learn about how the doctors thought, what the chances of survival were, but also about how the author felt in the last few months of Johnny's life. Whether he was optimistic, or only thinking about what was going to happen next. I think this is going to be one of the few non-fiction books I enjoy.

Even though I know how the book ends I'm still expecting some surprises. The author said at the beginning that the story was about the time before his death and how strong he was. As I read a little more of the book, I noticed he asked a lot of questions about what the doctors were doing. Even after his first operation he had a fantastic memory and was every intelligent. I'm excited to learn more about what he went through and what his family went through while they were trying to fight a disease the doctors still didn't know much about.

This is one of the only pictures available of Johnny Gunther. In the picture he is seven years old.