Dying: A Memoir Summary
Cory Taylor

Dying: A Memoir Overview

Dying: A Memoir is a highly moving nonfiction memoir by Cory Taylor which, within its pages, conveys a tremendous understanding of acceptance and loss. The author, dying of stage-four melanoma, sets out to recount her family histories and her own individual experiences in life with the hopes of painting the picture of a single, human existence in all its glory and complications. She first discusses her illness, her feelings about dying, and the way that various factors such as religion and family contribute to one's perception of death. Next, she reminisces about her mother's history, her father's history, and finally concludes with anecdotes from her own childhood in Fiji. The themes she explores are death, reinvention, family, belonging, and agency.