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Summary: English Review
Review: In the novel Death Be not Proud the main character Johnny is a young boy who is very intelligent and loves school. Suddenly he begins to feel stiffness on his neck and he is taken to the hospital to be checked by specialists to see if he has a brain tumor. The doctor discovers that Johnny will not have a long time to live and that he will eventually die soon. Johnny manages to stay positive and actually very humorous for he once thought that he had some other kind of disease or something that seems to be ridiculous or obviously untrue. He is more worried about if he has time to finish his homework rather than his own sickness. Johnny goes through ongoing surgeries of extraction of the orange sized tumor. Hours of pain and suffering, sometimes he would get better fast but then soon quickly get worse than he was before. Johnny went from doctor to doctor trying to find some kind of cure if possible. He comes across an experimental method involving mustard gas, but it gives Johnny really bad side effects and slightly makes him a little better. After Johnny going from surgery to surgery he gets better but then AGAIN! Worsens but this time it is his last visit to the hospital because he went to sleep and never woke up. He ended up dying, leaving people sad and crying everyone thought that Johnny was a very lively person; his ambition is what many people thought kept him alive. This story of Johnny brought his family together to be there for him because his father and mother were divorced so they began to have that same connection amongst each other again.I thought that this novel would be a good novel to read because it's not that long and it's an interesting story about a man and his son who share a relationship that not many have with their parents. I would defiantly recommend this book because this novel shows the struggle of this one young intelligent boy who is ready, who got his plans together and all of a sudden it is taken away from him ironically by his tumor, which is found in his head. There are specific examples that show how Johnny is an intelligent person who has a positive mind, "He was going to beat this evil, lawless thing! He'd show the surgeons how a boy with a real will to live could live!" Johnny being humorous his intelligence and thirst for homework was kind of funny because usually a child would write a letter to their parents saying, "I miss you" or something like that, but instead Johnny writes, "Here's a list of chemicals..." Johnny gives his dad a list of tasks that he wants him to do and bring for the next visit. A really cool part that I thought about the book was how Johnny actually got to write a letter to Albert Einstein about a physics-related idea of his and gets a response. The idea turns out to concern the "Unified Field Theory", and a physics professor tells Gunther that he's "...amazed Johnny is aware of the problem at such a young age." These are just a few examples that prove that this is an interesting book to read. It reflects how death is faced by all people at different time unexpectedly sometimes and how to deal with these types of problems. I think it's really cool how they use the concept that if you have a strong will to live then it is possible to make it through sickness for longer than expected.
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Summary: Still resonates fifty years later
Review: It's the rare person who wasn't assigned "Death Be Not Proud" in school, but it's a book that seems to turn up quite often in people's collections. It's funny to read the rather scathing reviews from teenagers who mock it ...because they seem to forget that this book was originally published in the late 1940s when books like this were practically unknown. John Gunther had originally written this for private circulation, but was prevailed upon to publish it so that others who had lost a child might gain strength.It's obvious from the first page that Johnny Gunther was loved as only a cherished only son could be. He was quite possibly a math and science prodigy and seemed to be destined for great things when the brain tumor first emerged, the tumor that would fluctuate, nearly disappear, and then come back to kill him in the space of fifteen months. While reading the book, it struck me that Johnny seemed to be more concerned about how his illness affected his parents than how it affected him--not surprising, considering that John and Frances Gunther were divorced and had been since Johnny was small, quite unusual at that time among upper-middle-class families. It was also refreshing that the mention of God and religion were practically avoided--Johnny describes himself a few times as an atheist; the prayer that he wrote that is so frequently cited is actually called "The Unbeliever's Prayer." One has to wonder if the near-canonization of Johnny by his father is an exorcism of the guilt Gunther had as a divorced father whose constant travels distanced him from his son. It's apparent, particularly in Johnny's letters, that Johnny was much closer to his mother than his father. I've always found Johnny's letters to be the most interesting section of "Death Be Not Proud." If he had lived today, he'd undoubtedly be a massive computer nerd! He displayed a lot of the characteristics of the spoiled only child of divorced parents, but at the same time he acknowledged that he knew this and displayed a good sense of humor about it. Even fifty-six years later, his good nature shines through, making the "what if" question even more poignant. Death, indeed, should not be proud that it took Johnny Gunther at the age of seventeen, but we should all commend John Gunther for giving us a glimpse into a young, brilliant life.
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Summary: Death Be Not Proud
Review: I liked the book because it was sad. It was sad because it's hard to imagine going through that at such a young age, knowing that you have a tumor. Throughout the book, Johnny tries to be like any other little boy, but he knows he will be dead soon. He has a Gliomass (a brain tumor) that will eventually kill him. He dies at a very young age, but he tried to fight it. I would recommend this book to a lot of people. It was sad, but informative. It made me more appreciative of life and all that I have.
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Summary: Death Be Not Proud
Review: This was a good book for the most part. I have read better ones, but this isn't horrible. It seemed that the father practically worshiped Johnny, his son with the brain tumor. Throughout the book, all I read was praise, praise, praise for this "perfect" teenager boy. He was "genius" "incredibly nice" and just plain "perfect" according to this father. It got boring after a while reading all about flawless Johnny's achievments. I guess touchy emotional books aren't for me.
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Summary: A Tragic Tale
Review: I had to pick a book for summer reading for the following year, which I will be in the eighth grade. My mom told me that I should pick Death Be Not Proud.
The book had a fast rate, by the second page Johnny already is starting to get sick. It's about the author's son, Johnny who develops a serious brain tumor in the late forties. Doctors were just starting to learn about this horrifying disease! It's an extremely hard book to read, not because of vocabulary, but because of the emotions that you have to deal with while you're reading the book. It's so hard to put down the book because in your mind you want Johnny to get better but he doesn't. Even though I might be only thirteen years old I still have an understanding about this book. As I read the book my eyes get tears in it. My mom had a brain aneurysm, which is pretty close to a brain tumor, so I know what's going on it the story. (My mom survived though, and Johnny did not.) I would definitely recommend this book!
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Summary: The Journal of the Death of a Loved one.
Review: We watch a sixteen-seventeen year-old child fight cancer to his own death, but we learn to love the child and the family, and hopefully learn how to make our lives and our loves better by this reading.
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Summary: A Heartbreaking Tale
Review: I read this book five years ago and it has stayed with me. I will never forget this book. It will remain one of my favorite books.
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Summary: Tear Jerker
Review: I don't believe that I have ever been so caught up in a character like I was with John Gunther, Jr. All of the brain tumor information was real and that is what scared me so much! This is a tear jerker, even though there is not much of a climax. I absolutely recommend this book for anyone who loves detail and a truthful story about life and death and how to cope with both.
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Summary: Death Be Not Proud
Review: Death Be Not Proud is a memoir by John Gunther about the death of his only son. He lost his son to cancer. Johnny died at a very young age, he was only 17 years old. The setting trakes place in the East Coast in the year of 1945. The sad story is told theough the thoughts and words of this father. The book goes through each part of his life and how it affected him. It tells a little bit about his accomplishments and how brilliant he was. Johnny and his family are very close though his parents were seperated. He had lots of dreams for him self and he never gave up unitl the end when he beacme weakand tired. The ending is heartbreaking, with the death of Johnny. I felt the book opend readers eyes, with the family's tragidies. Lots od people go through this in life and it's hard to deal with, but Johnny's family stays strong through out the whole process, thats important for people to learn. I would recommend this book to people that like true-life stories. It really touches your heart. I would also recommend this book to children in the 8th grade or above.
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Summary: Death be not proud
Review: This book was about a boy who had tumor in his brain and then he faught it off when he went in and he had sergery. Then the tumor came back and he died. His family was really sad and they greived over his loss. I did not like this book it went way to slow and they repeated the selves about three times of every part. They also dragged all of the parts out. I would recomend this book to anyone over 20. Or just somone who likes reading doesnt mind what kind of book it is.
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