Cahoots Magazine: Fall 2008
Such a mastery of words at such a young age! Bischoff, at the age of 24, writes a book full of poignant, carefully detailed, colourful vignettes that tell the story of Leah, the young main character's, diagnosis and treatment of cancer and how this experience alters, interplays, interferes with (or just happens alongside) the rest of her life. The writing is superb. Full of such interesting tidbits that the characters seem very real and the situations entirely plausible. As Steinbeck was a master of painting landscape with his words, Bischoff is well on her way to mastering the telling of thought, movement, and dialogue. Walk with Leah in her story, immerse yourself in her life and loves, laugh and cry and contemplate what it might be like to be in her shoes.
CJSW radio interview: June 19, 2008
FFWD Magazine (Article): May 1, 2008
It’s a homecoming for Theanna Bischoff this week, as she launches her debut novel, Cleavage, which began as a short story in a creative writing class at the University of Calgary. “I was on vacation with my then boyfriend and we had a giant fight, and this terrible seven-hour drive home,” says Bischoff. “I remember thinking that, if we had broken up, that drive would have been so much worse... so I turned it into a short story.”
At the time, Bischoff was completing a BA honours degree in psychology, writing a thesis about women’s experiences with ovarian cancer diagnoses. “There’s a specific type of support group that explores what it’s like to die, and the feelings that surround an impending death,” says Bischoff. “It’s been criticized for being negative, but I was trying to say the opposite. There’s a rhetoric of cancer, where everybody pushes patients to be positive and focus on triumph, how this experience will change their lives for the better — and that’s good, but they also need a safe place to express fears, doubts and worries.”
Cleavage, inspired in part by this research, is not a happy book. Leah, a 24-year-old test-writing supervisor, is diagnosed with breast cancer. “A twentysomething life is complicated enough, with job stress, relationship stress, family stress,” says Bischoff. “Throw cancer into the mix, and everything changes.”
Bischoff launches Cleavage at the Auburn Saloon on May 3, 7 p.m. Part of the proceeds from book sales benefit the Alberta Cancer Foundation.
St. Albert Gazette (Review): May 7, 2008
Truth, even in fiction, still hurts
Title refers not just to breast cancer, but division between partners
by Scott Hayes
Be prepared: there is a brutal honesty at work in Theanna Bischoff’s first novel. So much so that it wasn’t until midway through the story that I realized it was a work of fiction. It was very truthful and it hurts the way truth often does. The prose is so dense it makes Cleavage, otherwise light on pages, a heavy object. The phrasing is so sharp that it cuts through societal constructs of disease and remedy, revealing how real people actually deal with morbidity and morality.
It’s no wonder then that 24-year-old Bischoff is a graduate student in psychology, having already earned her Bachelor of Arts (Honors) with a concentration in creative writing. According to the book jacket biography, her research has explored how women experience a cancer diagnosis.
At the heart of the story is Leah Jordan, a woman in her mid-20s. Like a character out of Friends she goes through many events typical of people her age: work frustrations, new relationships, and family drama. But she also faces the prospect of breast cancer and is thrown into a scary world of treatment and therapy, including a mastectomy. It is the sort of daunting ordeal many people treat as a monster in the closet, hoping it remains there dormant but knowing it could come out and attack at any time.
“There are still foods that elicit curls of queasiness in my stomach basin, foods that, in the beginning, I ate just before chemo, not realizing the associations I was setting up for myself. Biology kicked in, ruining my fondness for soft cheeses, for dark carbonated beverages, for the sizzling chunky tomato sauce I routinely poured over pasta,” Bischoff writes.
Such acute and pithy turns of phrase show the author for a young master of fiction. Bischoff is not easily swayed to overwrite scenes, dallying along with useless descriptors. She writes for economy, for punch, and the book is richer for it.
But this isn’t just a story about one woman’s struggle with disease. Breast cancer is the narrative thread that provides the skeleton for Cleavage, keeping everything together, giving it structure. Don’t expect every page to talk about the various aspects associated with cancer, though. “Cleavage” also refers to the division between Leah and Justin Frey, her boyfriend, how each person is one side of the relationship and how they are cleaved apart like an axe splitting wood.
There is also a small section at the end of the book called “The Push-Up Version.” It provides readers with some insight into the process of writing and parts of the story that weren’t written. Think of it as the extras you sometimes get on DVDs. It’s a unique addition to a novel.
Cleavage will receive its Edmonton launch tomorrow at the Upper Crust Cafe, located at 10909 86th Avenue. Doors open at 7 p.m. and part of the proceeds from each book sold go to the Alberta Cancer Foundation. Entry is free.