Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith
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“IT’S THE UNGUARDED VOICES HE PRESENTS THAT STAY WITH YOU. . . . Terkel’s interviews may not allay fears about death. But reading them certainly encourages life while we have it.”–The New York TimesWhether it’s Working or The Great War, the legendary oral histories of Studs Terkel have offered indispensable insights into all areas of American life. Now, at eighty-eight, the Pulitzer Prize winner creates his most important work on a subject few can comfortably discuss: death.Here, in the voices of people both esteemed and unknown, are wise words, meaningful memories, and compassionate predictions about the experience of life’s end–and what may come after. A grad student explains how her two-year coma convinced her of the existence of reincarnation . . . A Hiroshima survivor reconciles her painful memories with the stoicism of her Japanese culture . . . Actress Uta Hagan expresses how her art is her religion and will be her legacy . . . Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler relives his World War II ordeal, after a torpedo left him in a lifeboat among injured and dying comrades . . . An AIDS counselor reveals why healthy gay men may require the most crucial psychological help . . . and a retired firefighter admits he “never felt so alive” as when he was doing his dangerous job.From the sheer physical facts to the emotional realities to spiritual speculations, all aspects of death are openly expressed in this wonderful work, the stirring culmination of Studs Terkel’s brilliant career. Book Magazine Terkel has written about big issues before, but his latest oral history tackles the biggest: mortality. There are gut-wrenching dispatches from the front lines—from doctors, for example, who see strangers die every day—and heartrending accounts from those who've had to face their own mortality or that of loved ones, whether from the modern plagues of violence, cancer and AIDS or from just growing old. While some of these voices offer speculation (and quite a few good jokes) about what the afterlife might be like, there is wide agreement that what really matters is how we live our lives while we're here, and how we deal with the inevitability of our fate through personal beliefs. Some of Terkel's interlocutors might be described as extraordinary—people who, through luck, strength or some combination of the two, have beaten death. (There's even a typically wise and funny conversation with Dresden survivor Kurt Vonnegut.) But mostly, the book features ordinary people who nevertheless have extraordinary things to say on the meaning of life. This is a powerful, inspiring book. —Eric Wargo
AcknowledgmentsxiiiIntroductionxvPrologue: BrothersTom Gates, a retired fireman3Bob Gates, a retired police officer11Part IDoctorsDr. Joseph Messer17Dr. Sharon Sandell24ERDr. John Barrett29Marc and Noreen Levison, a paramedic and a nurse39Lloyd (Pete) Haywood, a former gangbanger45Claire Hellstern, a nurse53Ed Reardon, a paramedic58Law and OrderRobert Soreghan, a homicide detective64Delbert Lee Tibbs, a former death-row inmate67WarDr. Frank Raila80Haskell Wexler, a cinematographer89Tammy Snider, a Hiroshima survivor (hibakusha)96Mothers and SonsV.I.M. (Victor Israel Marquez), a Vietnam vet105Angelina Rossi, his mother115Guadalupe Reyes, a mother119God's ShepherdsRev. Willie T. Barrow124Father Leonard Dubi129Rabbi Robert Marx134Pastor Tom Kok140Rev. Ed Townley149The StrangerRick Rundle, a city sanitation worker155Part IISeeing ThingsRandy Buescher, an associate architect163Chaz Ebert, a lawyer174Antoinette Korotko-Hatch, a church worker179Karen Thompson, a student187Dimitri Mihalas, an astronomer and physicist194A View from the BridgeHank Oettinger, a retired printer202Ira Glass, a radio journalist207Kid Pharaoh, a retired "collector"210Quinn Brisben, a retired teacher216Kurt Vonnegut, a writer221The BoomerBruce Bendinger, an advertising executive and writer228Part IIIFathers and SonsDoc Watson, a folksinger235Vernon Jarrett, a journalist242Country WomenPeggy Terry, a retired mountain woman252Bessie Jones, a Georgia Sea Island Singer (1972)260Rosalie Sorrels, a traveling folksinger266The Plague ITico Valle, a young man274Lori Cannon, "curator" of the Open HandSociety279Brian Matthews, an ex-bartender, writer for a gayweekly287Jewell Jenkins, a hospital aide291Justin Hayford, a journalist, musician295Matta Kelly, a case manager305The Old GuyJim Hapgood314The Plague IINancy Lanoue317Out ThereDr. Gary Slutkin324Part IVVissi d'ArteWilliam Warfield, a singer and teacher333Uta Hagen, an actress339The ComedianMick Betancourt345Day of the DeadCarlos Cortez, a painter and poet352Vine Deloria, a writer and teacher356Helen Sclair, a cemetery familiar363The Other SonSteve Young, a father366Maurine Young, a mother372The JobWilliam Herdegen, an undertaker379Rory Moina, a hospice nurse385The End and the BeginningMamie Mobley, a mother393Dr. Marvin Jackson, a son397EpilogueKathy Fagan and Linda Gagnon, mothers401
