To Walk in My Shoes: Saving Grace on a Less Traveled Road

by Rudolph E. Willis

To Walk in My Shoes is the poignant memoir of an African American who overcame the brutal realities of growing up in a family of ten children in Chicago's notorious Cabrini Green housing project during the early 1960s. It recounts a tumultuous childhood, the plight of a gifted child at a high school for special students, the ordeal of a medical school education, the joys and anguish of training at the National Cancer Institute, conducting disquieting research in Dr. Robert Gallo's lab during the explosive onset of the AIDS epidemic, and the daily round of a practicing cancer doctor.To Walk in My Shoes embraces a range of American issues and ideas. Certainly, it affirms the potential for achieving significant goals through persistent work, no matter the starting point. More, the book illuminates the predicament of the indigent through the eyes of one of the impoverished. It deals with so-called giftedness, depicts the true nature of the worst pandemic in history, addresses scientific chicanery, explains the care of the terminally ill, and interprets society's role in all these areas.

179 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1999

About the author

R. Elliot Willis attended a high school for gifted students, earned a bachelor’s
degree in biology and chemistry at Northwestern University, and then earned an
MD at St. Louis’s Washington University School of Medicine. He is the Chief
of Medical Oncology at Cancer Treatment Centers of America’s hospital in
Philadelphia.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

My father tells his story with a painful yet brave transparency. This remarkable journey holds many lessons and I recommend this book to any person, young or old. It's the stories of others wherein we can find a common thread, inspiration and the ability to find answers in how to move forward when we otherwise feel trapped by our limitations.