Book Review: Sick: A Memoir — Catherine Lanser

As I read Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour, I couldn’t help but think about the normal progression of illness:

• Step One — Symptoms
• Step Two — Diagnosis
• Step Three — Treatment
• Step Four — Cure or Remission
• Step Five — Follow Up and Repeat?

Depending on the disease, each step can speed by or linger. For well-known diseases these steps proceed logically from one to the next. For Khakpour, who was ultimately diagnosed with…