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Love and Fatigue in America
Love and Fatigue in America records an Englishman’s decade-long journey through his newly adopted country in the company of a mystifying illness and a charismatic dog.
When he receives an unexpected invitation from an unfamiliar American university, he embraces it as a triumphant new beginning. Instead, on arrival, he is stricken with a persistent inability to stand up or think straight, and things quickly go wrong. Diagnosed with ME disease—chronic fatigue syndrome—he moves restlessly from state to state, woman to woman, and eccentric doctor to eccentric doctor, in a search for a love and a life suited to his new condition. The journey is simultaneously brave, absurd, and instructive.
Finding himself prostrate on beds and couches from Los Alamos to Albany, he hears the intimate stories offered by those he encounters—their histories, hurts, and hopes—and from these fragments an unsentimental map emerges of the inner life of a nation. Disability has shifted his interest in America from measuring its opportunities to taking the measure of its humanity. Forced to consider for himself the meaning of a healthy life and how best to nurture it, he incidentally delivers a report on the health of a country.
By turns insightful, comic, affecting, and profound, Roger King’s Love and Fatigue in America briskly compresses an illness, a nation, and an era through masterly blending of literary forms. In a work that defies categorization, and never loses its pace or poise, the debilitated narrator is, ironically, the most lively and fully awake figure in the book.
“Remarkable. . . . [S]mart and funny. . . .[A]musing observations about everything American. . . . [T]his is not a traditional novel. . . . [T]his, as it turns out, is a brilliant perspective from which to view and write about life. . . . [G]reat reckonings unfurl in mere paragraphs.”—Jackson Newspapers.com
“As the disease drives the narrator city to city, woman to woman, and doctor to doctor, it brings into relief many of America’s follies and excesses, most notably our health-care system, which King portrayed as antiquated, bureaucratic, and inhumane. After more than fifteen years, America brings the narrator ‘not aspiration realized, nor a largeness of life fitting to its open spaces, but the nascent ability to be satisfied with less.’”—The New Yorker
When he receives an unexpected invitation from an unfamiliar American university, he embraces it as a triumphant new beginning. Instead, on arrival, he is stricken with a persistent inability to stand up or think straight, and things quickly go wrong. Diagnosed with ME disease—chronic fatigue syndrome—he moves restlessly from state to state, woman to woman, and eccentric doctor to eccentric doctor, in a search for a love and a life suited to his new condition. The journey is simultaneously brave, absurd, and instructive.
Finding himself prostrate on beds and couches from Los Alamos to Albany, he hears the intimate stories offered by those he encounters—their histories, hurts, and hopes—and from these fragments an unsentimental map emerges of the inner life of a nation. Disability has shifted his interest in America from measuring its opportunities to taking the measure of its humanity. Forced to consider for himself the meaning of a healthy life and how best to nurture it, he incidentally delivers a report on the health of a country.
By turns insightful, comic, affecting, and profound, Roger King’s Love and Fatigue in America briskly compresses an illness, a nation, and an era through masterly blending of literary forms. In a work that defies categorization, and never loses its pace or poise, the debilitated narrator is, ironically, the most lively and fully awake figure in the book.
“Remarkable. . . . [S]mart and funny. . . .[A]musing observations about everything American. . . . [T]his is not a traditional novel. . . . [T]his, as it turns out, is a brilliant perspective from which to view and write about life. . . . [G]reat reckonings unfurl in mere paragraphs.”—Jackson Newspapers.com
“As the disease drives the narrator city to city, woman to woman, and doctor to doctor, it brings into relief many of America’s follies and excesses, most notably our health-care system, which King portrayed as antiquated, bureaucratic, and inhumane. After more than fifteen years, America brings the narrator ‘not aspiration realized, nor a largeness of life fitting to its open spaces, but the nascent ability to be satisfied with less.’”—The New Yorker
- GenresMemoirNonfiction
284 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2002
About the author
Roger King
13 books25 followersBorn on the northern border of London. Dad worked in a factory making lightbulbs, Mum was a bookkeeper. Happy enough.
Went to universities in UK and US, ending up with a doctorate in agricultural economics
Pursued career in "international development" concurrent with writing fiction. First novel was "Horizontal Hotel," set in Nigeria, after a spell teaching rural development at Ahmadu Bello University in that country.
http://rogerking.org/novels/horizonta...
Second novel, "Written on a Strangers Map" followed work in Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia, and drew on the experience of becoming more personally and politically involved in these countries than was appropriate for a UN employee.
http://rogerking.org/novels/written-o...
Went on to work for UN agencies in twenty countries in Asia and Africa, before falling chronically ill with ME disease at 44. At the time he was a new professor of creative writing in the US, and had just completed the novel "Sea Level," which drew on multiple visits to Pakistan and Polynesia.
http://rogerking.org/novels/sea-level/
The prizewinning novel, "A Girl From Zanzibar," was published in 2002. His script of this book is perpetually on the brink of being made into a feature film.
http://rogerking.org/novels/a-girl-fr...
He executive produced, with Mira Nair, the feature documentary,"Still the Children Are Here," (2004) set in Megalaya, northeast India.
http://rogerking.org/film-more/
His autobiographical novel, "Love and Fatigue in America," about the experience of making a new life in the US while disabled by illness, was published in 2012.
http://rogerking.org/novels/love-and-...
He has won prizes for fiction and screenwriting, and received numerous fellowships, including those at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, VCCA, and Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain. He was a recent visiting fellow at Amherst College.
His work has been glowingly reviewed in the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, and points south.
His books have not made him rich.
The jagged trajectory of his personal life can be deduced from reading his novels, allowing for imaginative misdirection. Looks colorful; felt painful.
He lives in Leverett Massachusetts with Django the canine cover model, and tries to spend time on sailing boats, purely for health reasons.
Finds coffee therapeutic
Is working a new novel.
Earlier novels soon to be republished.
Went to universities in UK and US, ending up with a doctorate in agricultural economics
Pursued career in "international development" concurrent with writing fiction. First novel was "Horizontal Hotel," set in Nigeria, after a spell teaching rural development at Ahmadu Bello University in that country.
http://rogerking.org/novels/horizonta...
Second novel, "Written on a Strangers Map" followed work in Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia, and drew on the experience of becoming more personally and politically involved in these countries than was appropriate for a UN employee.
http://rogerking.org/novels/written-o...
Went on to work for UN agencies in twenty countries in Asia and Africa, before falling chronically ill with ME disease at 44. At the time he was a new professor of creative writing in the US, and had just completed the novel "Sea Level," which drew on multiple visits to Pakistan and Polynesia.
http://rogerking.org/novels/sea-level/
The prizewinning novel, "A Girl From Zanzibar," was published in 2002. His script of this book is perpetually on the brink of being made into a feature film.
http://rogerking.org/novels/a-girl-fr...
He executive produced, with Mira Nair, the feature documentary,"Still the Children Are Here," (2004) set in Megalaya, northeast India.
http://rogerking.org/film-more/
His autobiographical novel, "Love and Fatigue in America," about the experience of making a new life in the US while disabled by illness, was published in 2012.
http://rogerking.org/novels/love-and-...
He has won prizes for fiction and screenwriting, and received numerous fellowships, including those at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, VCCA, and Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain. He was a recent visiting fellow at Amherst College.
His work has been glowingly reviewed in the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, and points south.
His books have not made him rich.
The jagged trajectory of his personal life can be deduced from reading his novels, allowing for imaginative misdirection. Looks colorful; felt painful.
He lives in Leverett Massachusetts with Django the canine cover model, and tries to spend time on sailing boats, purely for health reasons.
Finds coffee therapeutic
Is working a new novel.
Earlier novels soon to be republished.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
April 29, 2012
What happens when a person's life is completely derailed by a poorly understood illness? How do you go on when the basics of a good life – a home , a family, meaningful work – are suddenly beyond your grasp? Roger King, in what he describes as an “autobiographical novel”, moves from England to the United States hoping to build a life and instead is crushed by the devastating illness called by the totally inadequate name of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the United States, but known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis in much of the rest of the world. This book tells of his search for a life that he can manage in a painfully honest, touching, heartbreaking narrative.
This book attracted my attention because I share the same illness with the author and can certainly identify with his struggle. I also understand and appreciate the style he utilizes in telling his story. He combines memory, poetry, lists – a number of forms which may at first seem disjointed but which work very well in describing a life that has come loose at the hinges. Calling it an autobiographical novel works also – looking backward through the fog of illness, the details may be fuzzy, but the emotional truth of his story is powerful. King does not try to paint a pleasant picture of himself – he stumbles, wanders, makes missteps as he grasps at the life that is slipping through his fingers. He is much more charitable in describing those he meets and sometimes loves, and he has altered their names and details about them so that he can freely tell his story of wandering untethered from the west coast to the east, exhausted and ill, always searching for a way to continue to live, accompanied by the one unchanging figure in his life, his loyal dog.
In spite of King's struggles, this book is often very amusing and presents a captivating look at the United States from the point of view of an outsider. King's illness pushes him more deeply into the role of an observer, and his observations of American life are fascinating. Because this book is so beautifully written and King is such an accomplished chronicler of the telling details of life, I would recommend this book to a wide readership. The themes of loss and searching are certainly common to many lives. This is a very fine book.
This book attracted my attention because I share the same illness with the author and can certainly identify with his struggle. I also understand and appreciate the style he utilizes in telling his story. He combines memory, poetry, lists – a number of forms which may at first seem disjointed but which work very well in describing a life that has come loose at the hinges. Calling it an autobiographical novel works also – looking backward through the fog of illness, the details may be fuzzy, but the emotional truth of his story is powerful. King does not try to paint a pleasant picture of himself – he stumbles, wanders, makes missteps as he grasps at the life that is slipping through his fingers. He is much more charitable in describing those he meets and sometimes loves, and he has altered their names and details about them so that he can freely tell his story of wandering untethered from the west coast to the east, exhausted and ill, always searching for a way to continue to live, accompanied by the one unchanging figure in his life, his loyal dog.
In spite of King's struggles, this book is often very amusing and presents a captivating look at the United States from the point of view of an outsider. King's illness pushes him more deeply into the role of an observer, and his observations of American life are fascinating. Because this book is so beautifully written and King is such an accomplished chronicler of the telling details of life, I would recommend this book to a wide readership. The themes of loss and searching are certainly common to many lives. This is a very fine book.
May 15, 2012
Roger King’s culture has always been sensible, secular, scientific, with a deep belief in the natural dominion of mind over circumstance. At the start of his courageous autobiographical novel, he’s about to embark on a new life: teaching at a college in Spokane, reconnecting with a girlfriend, crossing the ocean from Britain to get reacquainted with America once again.
Until he experiences a fever and a bout of dizziness at the gym.
The eventual diagnosis: myalgic encephalopathy, commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome. It’s a little-known immune disease that incapacitates him, creates brain fog, and threatens to knock him low unless he carefully monitors his energy. Others don’t understand it; he is constantly subject to remarks like, “I think people who are sick for a a long time want to be sick.” Or: “Don’t you think it’s all in your head?” It’s a disease that engenders frustration and disbelief – not only in others, but in Roger King himself.
Roger King takes his readers up front and personal with the devastating effects of myalgic encephalopathy. I will quote one paragraph at length: “Out of necessity, I take the illness for my company, something with its own intelligence. It has its personality and I have minr. As I try to train it, it sets about training me. If I walk too far or fast, it punishes me. If I attempt work, it makes my nervous system buzz and fizz with flaring short circuits. It wants me quiet and it wants me flat, and I would do well to obey. It wants slowness and routine. Excitement and ambition anger it. It is appalled by spontaneity, hates decisions, refuses responsibility. It tells me to be quiet and satisfied, it has no truck with upset…
Powerful stuff! But fatigue is only one part of this equation. The other part is love. Roger King is a magnet for women who have had damaged lives, women who have been emotionally and/or physically abused. His enforced quietness attract them, including his love interest Mary, and her young daughter Zoe. There is a part of Mr. King that withdraws or sabotages love, and he is candid enough to display that.
As the witness to hurts and hopes – as the nurturer of a irrepressible dog named Arthur – and as a seeker of his own truth, Roger King’s tone shifts from poignancy to irony to subtle humor. He also serves as a commentator on America’s broken health care and insurance system, and the irrationality of excluding those who need it most – potentially sick people – from health insurance coverage because it is “rational business practice.” We also meet several of his well-meaning (and not so well-meaning) doctors, who are baffled with his condition.
This is a brave book, an intensely personal book, and one that is, in turns, surprising and original. It’s a book that should be read to learn – and savored.
Until he experiences a fever and a bout of dizziness at the gym.
The eventual diagnosis: myalgic encephalopathy, commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome. It’s a little-known immune disease that incapacitates him, creates brain fog, and threatens to knock him low unless he carefully monitors his energy. Others don’t understand it; he is constantly subject to remarks like, “I think people who are sick for a a long time want to be sick.” Or: “Don’t you think it’s all in your head?” It’s a disease that engenders frustration and disbelief – not only in others, but in Roger King himself.
Roger King takes his readers up front and personal with the devastating effects of myalgic encephalopathy. I will quote one paragraph at length: “Out of necessity, I take the illness for my company, something with its own intelligence. It has its personality and I have minr. As I try to train it, it sets about training me. If I walk too far or fast, it punishes me. If I attempt work, it makes my nervous system buzz and fizz with flaring short circuits. It wants me quiet and it wants me flat, and I would do well to obey. It wants slowness and routine. Excitement and ambition anger it. It is appalled by spontaneity, hates decisions, refuses responsibility. It tells me to be quiet and satisfied, it has no truck with upset…
Powerful stuff! But fatigue is only one part of this equation. The other part is love. Roger King is a magnet for women who have had damaged lives, women who have been emotionally and/or physically abused. His enforced quietness attract them, including his love interest Mary, and her young daughter Zoe. There is a part of Mr. King that withdraws or sabotages love, and he is candid enough to display that.
As the witness to hurts and hopes – as the nurturer of a irrepressible dog named Arthur – and as a seeker of his own truth, Roger King’s tone shifts from poignancy to irony to subtle humor. He also serves as a commentator on America’s broken health care and insurance system, and the irrationality of excluding those who need it most – potentially sick people – from health insurance coverage because it is “rational business practice.” We also meet several of his well-meaning (and not so well-meaning) doctors, who are baffled with his condition.
This is a brave book, an intensely personal book, and one that is, in turns, surprising and original. It’s a book that should be read to learn – and savored.
June 15, 2012
This novel is beautifully written, with a perspective both large in scope and fine in detail. The narrator is hugely sympathetic and the people he encounters, young and old from all walks of life, mostly female, with their tragic stories, their empathy & survival are vividly real. Also, the sense of place is strong and permeates this narrative journey. Spokane, for instance, is a character in itself, with all the people reflecting the dominant aspects of the area & the military culture, conveyed with real insight & sensitivity. From Spokane to Santa Fe to San Francisco and beyond, this novel unfolds as a deeply-felt, beautifully drawn odyssey.
Then, of course, there are the stark & honest descriptions of the pain and indignity of CFS. The ice cold swim & shower particularly stand out, as does the crash on the date with the tall leggy waitress & her chaperone friend in Marin. I think it's amazing that Roger King managed to shape the experience of such a long and painful curtailment of his life into such a resonant, heartfelt & redemptive piece of art. Love & Fatigue in America became my companion while I was reading it, a companion to me like Trollope or Annie Ernaux were to the author. Some companions can natter on or scream or make bad jokes while others are just great company, and this book was great company. I found myself slowing down so I could stay with it longer.
Then, of course, there are the stark & honest descriptions of the pain and indignity of CFS. The ice cold swim & shower particularly stand out, as does the crash on the date with the tall leggy waitress & her chaperone friend in Marin. I think it's amazing that Roger King managed to shape the experience of such a long and painful curtailment of his life into such a resonant, heartfelt & redemptive piece of art. Love & Fatigue in America became my companion while I was reading it, a companion to me like Trollope or Annie Ernaux were to the author. Some companions can natter on or scream or make bad jokes while others are just great company, and this book was great company. I found myself slowing down so I could stay with it longer.
June 21, 2013
A beautifully written book about a little-understood disease, myalgic encephalomyelitis, a/k/a chronic fatigue syndrome.
The author is a Brit who in 1990 is embarking on a new life in America. He's just been offered a teaching position at Inland University in Spokane, and this offer arrives at the perfect time as some "difficulties" have arisen for him in London.
He's eager to get established, with new friends, new love(s), a new career, in this new place. But seven months after he arrives, he comes down with a flu, and then, after he thinks he's recovered, he heads to the local gym for a workout, and that's where things start to go horribly wrong. He becomes dizzy and feels the need to sit down, right there, on the floor, which amazingly doesn't seem to help, and his body is like a dead weight, seemingly trying to press him further into the floor.
This is where his life with CFS begins, and he takes us on a journey through the maze of the American healthcare system with all its frustrations and shortcomings, and his search for treatment, for friendship, for love, and for a home, all told with subtle humor and poignant observation.
The author is a Brit who in 1990 is embarking on a new life in America. He's just been offered a teaching position at Inland University in Spokane, and this offer arrives at the perfect time as some "difficulties" have arisen for him in London.
He's eager to get established, with new friends, new love(s), a new career, in this new place. But seven months after he arrives, he comes down with a flu, and then, after he thinks he's recovered, he heads to the local gym for a workout, and that's where things start to go horribly wrong. He becomes dizzy and feels the need to sit down, right there, on the floor, which amazingly doesn't seem to help, and his body is like a dead weight, seemingly trying to press him further into the floor.
This is where his life with CFS begins, and he takes us on a journey through the maze of the American healthcare system with all its frustrations and shortcomings, and his search for treatment, for friendship, for love, and for a home, all told with subtle humor and poignant observation.
March 25, 2014
British-born author Roger King's take on America of the past twenty years is nothing if not revealing. In LOVE AND FATIGUE IN AMERICA, which he calls an "autobiographical novel," here, for example, are his thoughts on the First Gulf War, a time when he was living in Spokane, where a large part of the population belonged to, or had ties to, the army reserves.
"They agree, the reservists, in television interviews, that it is their duty to go and fight the Iraqis, though their knowledge of where Kuwait is, or who the Iraqis are, is shaky. They appear to have no sense of what I know firsthand to be true, that the American government is widely loathed in poor countries around the world, nor do they seem to have any knowledge of the ruthless instances that have made this so. They know themselves to be nice."
King, who worked in several very poor countries in Africa, knows, I assume, what he's talking about in regard to how poor countries feel about America. (Although the narrator in this 'novel' is never
named, for brevity's sake, I'm going to just call him by the author's name, since King.)
King contracted CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) just a couple months after his arrival in Spokane to teach at "Inland University," has been battling this little-understood disease ever since. Having grown up with the free medical care of socialized medicine, he is incredulous at the mess that the American health care system has become.
"In Britain there had been no paperwork, no dealing with money, no maze ... You remember visits to the doctor as blithe affairs. The burden of management customary to Americans strikes you as astonishing - staggering - in its complexity, trickery, and venality. You wonder that such a situation could ever be taken as normal."
King's descriptions of the horrendously crippling, often totally disabling effects of CFS are scattered throughout the narrative, and give added weight to the "Fatigue" of the book's title. There is little pity or sympathy to be found for sufferers of this mysterious ailment, which has no real treatment, and is often regarded as psychosomatic, imaginary, or fake, and not just by regular people, but also by medical practitioners and especially by insurance companies.
King is no luckier in his continuing search for a real and lasting love. In fact, the CFS often makes relationships and sexual activity nearly impossible. King spends many of his waking hours lying down in an attempt to conserve energy.
After leaving Spokane he spends a couple years in New Mexico trying to cope with his CFS, and there he enters into a loving if complicated affair with a married woman who has a little girl that King becomes very much attached to. This affair is over when he takes another university teaching job in San Francisco, where he marvels at the strange diversity of California culture and its separation of sex and love, describing encounters with waitresses, massage parlors, sex workers, lingerie models and more, which he calls the "long division of body and soul." These encounters never seem prurient or salacious, but instead swing somewhere between silly and sad, which attests, I think, to King's skills as a story teller. Unable finally to complete his teaching duties in San Francisco due to the CFS, he takes "catastrophic medical leave" and sets off to travel up and down across the U.S. in search of a place he can settle, with multiple visits along the way to doctors, alternative medicine types, quacks, etc.
I know this sounds like a pretty grim story, but the truth is it's not. There were many dry observations on the American way of life that left me wincing, or chuckling, in recognition.
And there's this great dog, King's best friend, really. A big dog, his name is Arthur, a Golden Retriever-Great Pyrenees mix. Arthur is nearly all that's left from the New Mexico love affair, and travels everywhere with King for nearly eleven years. So we've got LOVE, we've got FATIGUE (chronic, in fact), and we've got a good dog, eulogized thusly -
"He was an animal who gave humans permission to be more human ... He was born, made happiness without meaning to, died."
King does not say that he is living "happily ever after," but he does seem to be working at it. His story covers more than twenty years of living in America, from the First Gulf War well into the Iraq War that recently ended. As an outsider, King sees the irreparable damage that war brings, to the soldiers and their families, noting "The damage of violence will be lodged in them and will reach down through the generations."
There are many incisive and insightful comments about America and how we live. King sees - feels - a kind of incipient decay at large in America.
"... there is a scent of something familiar to me in the air, cozy almost, of a grandeur no longer affordable, of inevitable, natural decline. It's exactly the scent I grew up with in postwar England. It's not unpromising."
I have just begun to read another book, George Packer's book about America called THE UNWINDING. King, in his meandering journey across America - his "travels with Arthur" - has obviously been a quiet witness to that same 'unwinding.'
The title is a good one. It's all in there: love, fatigue, America - and don't forget that great dog, Arthur. This is just such a great book! Highly recommended.
"They agree, the reservists, in television interviews, that it is their duty to go and fight the Iraqis, though their knowledge of where Kuwait is, or who the Iraqis are, is shaky. They appear to have no sense of what I know firsthand to be true, that the American government is widely loathed in poor countries around the world, nor do they seem to have any knowledge of the ruthless instances that have made this so. They know themselves to be nice."
King, who worked in several very poor countries in Africa, knows, I assume, what he's talking about in regard to how poor countries feel about America. (Although the narrator in this 'novel' is never
named, for brevity's sake, I'm going to just call him by the author's name, since King.)
King contracted CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) just a couple months after his arrival in Spokane to teach at "Inland University," has been battling this little-understood disease ever since. Having grown up with the free medical care of socialized medicine, he is incredulous at the mess that the American health care system has become.
"In Britain there had been no paperwork, no dealing with money, no maze ... You remember visits to the doctor as blithe affairs. The burden of management customary to Americans strikes you as astonishing - staggering - in its complexity, trickery, and venality. You wonder that such a situation could ever be taken as normal."
King's descriptions of the horrendously crippling, often totally disabling effects of CFS are scattered throughout the narrative, and give added weight to the "Fatigue" of the book's title. There is little pity or sympathy to be found for sufferers of this mysterious ailment, which has no real treatment, and is often regarded as psychosomatic, imaginary, or fake, and not just by regular people, but also by medical practitioners and especially by insurance companies.
King is no luckier in his continuing search for a real and lasting love. In fact, the CFS often makes relationships and sexual activity nearly impossible. King spends many of his waking hours lying down in an attempt to conserve energy.
After leaving Spokane he spends a couple years in New Mexico trying to cope with his CFS, and there he enters into a loving if complicated affair with a married woman who has a little girl that King becomes very much attached to. This affair is over when he takes another university teaching job in San Francisco, where he marvels at the strange diversity of California culture and its separation of sex and love, describing encounters with waitresses, massage parlors, sex workers, lingerie models and more, which he calls the "long division of body and soul." These encounters never seem prurient or salacious, but instead swing somewhere between silly and sad, which attests, I think, to King's skills as a story teller. Unable finally to complete his teaching duties in San Francisco due to the CFS, he takes "catastrophic medical leave" and sets off to travel up and down across the U.S. in search of a place he can settle, with multiple visits along the way to doctors, alternative medicine types, quacks, etc.
I know this sounds like a pretty grim story, but the truth is it's not. There were many dry observations on the American way of life that left me wincing, or chuckling, in recognition.
And there's this great dog, King's best friend, really. A big dog, his name is Arthur, a Golden Retriever-Great Pyrenees mix. Arthur is nearly all that's left from the New Mexico love affair, and travels everywhere with King for nearly eleven years. So we've got LOVE, we've got FATIGUE (chronic, in fact), and we've got a good dog, eulogized thusly -
"He was an animal who gave humans permission to be more human ... He was born, made happiness without meaning to, died."
King does not say that he is living "happily ever after," but he does seem to be working at it. His story covers more than twenty years of living in America, from the First Gulf War well into the Iraq War that recently ended. As an outsider, King sees the irreparable damage that war brings, to the soldiers and their families, noting "The damage of violence will be lodged in them and will reach down through the generations."
There are many incisive and insightful comments about America and how we live. King sees - feels - a kind of incipient decay at large in America.
"... there is a scent of something familiar to me in the air, cozy almost, of a grandeur no longer affordable, of inevitable, natural decline. It's exactly the scent I grew up with in postwar England. It's not unpromising."
I have just begun to read another book, George Packer's book about America called THE UNWINDING. King, in his meandering journey across America - his "travels with Arthur" - has obviously been a quiet witness to that same 'unwinding.'
The title is a good one. It's all in there: love, fatigue, America - and don't forget that great dog, Arthur. This is just such a great book! Highly recommended.
July 31, 2013
Roger King's intimate account of falling ill with the disease known as chronic fatigue syndrome - CFS in the US, myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) elsewhere - is a rarity. One would expect a memoir documenting a horrific illness to evoke pity. Yet, King's observations, both of himself and of the country in which he finds himself marooned, are so keen, and so humorous, that it is difficult to feel anything other than admiration. What makes this book stand out among other memoirs is King's unflinching, yet completely unselfserving honesty. King is not out to shock his audience, or to make us feel his pain. He is merely telling the truth.
As is the case with many immigrants, King, a British citizen, moves to the U.S. in order to start a new life. He had worked for years as a socio-economist in international development, traveling widely throughout Asia and Africa at the behest of the UN. But a fruitless love affair, as well as becoming the unwitting victim of a police conspiracy, provides the impetus for making a fresh start. King's literary background, as well as his world experience, makes him an excellent candidate for a post in an English department. So, he accepts a position teaching creative writing, literature and screenwriting at "Inland University" (Eastern Washington University), deep in the great American Northwest. With a new novel about to be published, a new life in academia, and the possibility of new love on the horizon, it appears as if King's wish has come true.
Within a year, King's dream of starting a new life turns into a nightmare. After recovering from a nasty flu, King goes to a gym to work himself back into health. This is where his world slips sideways. A sudden bout of dizziness, accompanied by profound weakness, forces him to the floor, where King gamely tries to pretend as if he is just dehydrated. But having worked in Africa, King is no stranger to the effects of dehydration. He knows this is something else.
"The pressing weight is enormous, too much for my muscles, which have themselves turned into a dead weight. After receiving an urgent petition from the neck, I let my head drop. My heart has gone deep. It's beating down there, but very slowly. There's nothing to do but wait, I tell myself."
So begins the saga of ME/CFS: a long string of ineffectual doctors (whom King identifies with roman numerals and by nickname: "Grumpy," "Happy," "Thumper"), a longer string of useless medications, a string of friends who offer support but don't really understand what is wrong, and finally, a very long string of states, as King drives from California to Massachusetts looking for a home, looking for love, and trying to outrun his disease.
While the topic of this book is illness - what we think and do when we lose our health, how we adjust, or don't - the theme is love. In spite of a body that does not let him function, King's desire for love is unimpeded by his complete inability to seek it, or do anything with it once he has found it. Against all odds, he finds love after all. Mary, a beautiful, accomplished paleontologist, befriends him, and eventually falls in love with him. King now has his heart's desire ... but, as the saying goes, we should be careful of what we wish for.
Ultimately, after love that is simultaneously found and lost, and travels that take him from one coast to the other, King comes to terms with the realities of an incurable illness, achieving an awareness that goes beyond anything we might expect to experience in our short lives. This is the journey's end.
"I am, this illness has proved, not divisible within myself, not separable from without. My borders are permeable, the border patrol flawed and corruptible. The new understanding is that my self is not a knot of self-regard located in my mind, but some large and labile thing existing beyond my full control in a continuum of brain, body, other living things, and all substance beyond. In short, the nature of CFS is an object lesson in oneness. Which is an object lesson in love. You are lost, yet you are found."
All of us, whether we have ME/CFS or any other affliction of the body or heart, are lost, yet found. In the beauty of his words, and in his commitment to the truth, King has found us.
As is the case with many immigrants, King, a British citizen, moves to the U.S. in order to start a new life. He had worked for years as a socio-economist in international development, traveling widely throughout Asia and Africa at the behest of the UN. But a fruitless love affair, as well as becoming the unwitting victim of a police conspiracy, provides the impetus for making a fresh start. King's literary background, as well as his world experience, makes him an excellent candidate for a post in an English department. So, he accepts a position teaching creative writing, literature and screenwriting at "Inland University" (Eastern Washington University), deep in the great American Northwest. With a new novel about to be published, a new life in academia, and the possibility of new love on the horizon, it appears as if King's wish has come true.
Within a year, King's dream of starting a new life turns into a nightmare. After recovering from a nasty flu, King goes to a gym to work himself back into health. This is where his world slips sideways. A sudden bout of dizziness, accompanied by profound weakness, forces him to the floor, where King gamely tries to pretend as if he is just dehydrated. But having worked in Africa, King is no stranger to the effects of dehydration. He knows this is something else.
"The pressing weight is enormous, too much for my muscles, which have themselves turned into a dead weight. After receiving an urgent petition from the neck, I let my head drop. My heart has gone deep. It's beating down there, but very slowly. There's nothing to do but wait, I tell myself."
So begins the saga of ME/CFS: a long string of ineffectual doctors (whom King identifies with roman numerals and by nickname: "Grumpy," "Happy," "Thumper"), a longer string of useless medications, a string of friends who offer support but don't really understand what is wrong, and finally, a very long string of states, as King drives from California to Massachusetts looking for a home, looking for love, and trying to outrun his disease.
While the topic of this book is illness - what we think and do when we lose our health, how we adjust, or don't - the theme is love. In spite of a body that does not let him function, King's desire for love is unimpeded by his complete inability to seek it, or do anything with it once he has found it. Against all odds, he finds love after all. Mary, a beautiful, accomplished paleontologist, befriends him, and eventually falls in love with him. King now has his heart's desire ... but, as the saying goes, we should be careful of what we wish for.
Ultimately, after love that is simultaneously found and lost, and travels that take him from one coast to the other, King comes to terms with the realities of an incurable illness, achieving an awareness that goes beyond anything we might expect to experience in our short lives. This is the journey's end.
"I am, this illness has proved, not divisible within myself, not separable from without. My borders are permeable, the border patrol flawed and corruptible. The new understanding is that my self is not a knot of self-regard located in my mind, but some large and labile thing existing beyond my full control in a continuum of brain, body, other living things, and all substance beyond. In short, the nature of CFS is an object lesson in oneness. Which is an object lesson in love. You are lost, yet you are found."
All of us, whether we have ME/CFS or any other affliction of the body or heart, are lost, yet found. In the beauty of his words, and in his commitment to the truth, King has found us.
June 18, 2012
Roger King calls his book an "autobiographical novel," because a memoir "is always a reimagined past and never literal." I would add that his book is so beautifully written and unique in its structure and themes that it also stands as literature.
Love and Fatigue in America is King's account of coming from London to Washington State in 1990 to begin a one-year faculty appointment (creative writing, literature and film) at a university. For King, it was an opportunity in his mid-40s to change careers, create a new life, and possibly find new love. Within only a couple of weeks, after a debilitating bout with flu, he came down with chronic fatigue syndrome. Overnight,the simplest tasks sometimes seem insurmountable as King tries to keep his teaching commitment, find medical answers and help, and make new friends.
His interactions with the crazy American health care system are both frustrating and funny as he tries virtually every conventional and wacky treatment imaginable. Surprisingly, at no time does the narrative get bleak or depressing. We follow his travels to New Mexico, California, and points east as he searches for a place to call home, and we're rooting for him all the way. The book is full of insights into late 20th century America -- as an outsider can best describe -- and reflections on topics such as war, the future of America, and chronic illness. It's a book like no other, and I plan to read it again.
Love and Fatigue in America is King's account of coming from London to Washington State in 1990 to begin a one-year faculty appointment (creative writing, literature and film) at a university. For King, it was an opportunity in his mid-40s to change careers, create a new life, and possibly find new love. Within only a couple of weeks, after a debilitating bout with flu, he came down with chronic fatigue syndrome. Overnight,the simplest tasks sometimes seem insurmountable as King tries to keep his teaching commitment, find medical answers and help, and make new friends.
His interactions with the crazy American health care system are both frustrating and funny as he tries virtually every conventional and wacky treatment imaginable. Surprisingly, at no time does the narrative get bleak or depressing. We follow his travels to New Mexico, California, and points east as he searches for a place to call home, and we're rooting for him all the way. The book is full of insights into late 20th century America -- as an outsider can best describe -- and reflections on topics such as war, the future of America, and chronic illness. It's a book like no other, and I plan to read it again.
March 25, 2024
Posting this review for partner.
“CFS stricken, my partner insisted I read Love and Fatigue in America (by Roger King). Whoa! Instructional, for sure. But readable, quite amusing and enjoyable.
For the CFS-stricken: Affirmation at last in print!
For the initiated: Force-fed empathy. You--friend, relative, partner--experience this debilitating, frustrating, mysterious illness.
For the uninitiated: Hello! Some folks lives are genuinely, inexplicably, seriously impaired.
For all: Droll, self-aware, ironic and usually self-deprecating humor galore. Numerous "Hunh!... Right!" insights into modern America and local landscape segments from a worldly (Brit) outsider perspective.
If there's a peeve, I've done and do some writing. King's skill with words and thoughts is envy-provoking.”
WM
“CFS stricken, my partner insisted I read Love and Fatigue in America (by Roger King). Whoa! Instructional, for sure. But readable, quite amusing and enjoyable.
For the CFS-stricken: Affirmation at last in print!
For the initiated: Force-fed empathy. You--friend, relative, partner--experience this debilitating, frustrating, mysterious illness.
For the uninitiated: Hello! Some folks lives are genuinely, inexplicably, seriously impaired.
For all: Droll, self-aware, ironic and usually self-deprecating humor galore. Numerous "Hunh!... Right!" insights into modern America and local landscape segments from a worldly (Brit) outsider perspective.
If there's a peeve, I've done and do some writing. King's skill with words and thoughts is envy-provoking.”
WM
March 2, 2013
Worth-reading biography of a man struggling with CFS. I think it gives a good sense of what it means to live with the disease. His is not a very severe case, but it's bad enough to disable him. It covers a long span of life giving it a useful time-dimension. Also I liked the way it managed to show how things are (you're ill) while appearing different from the outside (you look healthy and people don't realize how you micromanage every small energy to give the impression of being normal).
I found refreshing many observations on life, in general (the US health care system, the military, the people, the ways of different countries and yes, love).
The only thing that really disappointed me was is opinion on the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV show. LOL Clearly TV critic or scholar he is not.
I found refreshing many observations on life, in general (the US health care system, the military, the people, the ways of different countries and yes, love).
The only thing that really disappointed me was is opinion on the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV show. LOL Clearly TV critic or scholar he is not.
July 8, 2012
The author calls this an autobiographical novel - what I take this to mean is that the experiences were real, the places and names were somewhat changed. What I do know is that he's managed to beautifully craft what it feels like to live with CFS/ME, and knowing what CFS feels like, it is nothing short of awe-inspiring that he was able to pull together such a gorgeous book.
I found myself emotional many times while I read this, as having lived through some similar events (and I laughed at some of them - the doctor lists and attempted cure lists in particular, been there and done that) and just really felt like someone was finally able to put into words what its like to try to keep it all together when your body just is falling apart.
I found myself emotional many times while I read this, as having lived through some similar events (and I laughed at some of them - the doctor lists and attempted cure lists in particular, been there and done that) and just really felt like someone was finally able to put into words what its like to try to keep it all together when your body just is falling apart.
Want to Read
June 5, 2013Soon after the narrator of this moving autobiographical novel, a teacher from England, arrives in Spokane, Washington, he is stricken by an illness that attacks his mind and body in equal measures. He is largely confined to beds and couches, and the smallest tasks become monumental efforts. It turns out that he has chronic fatigue syndrome. Friends and colleagues react with cynicism and coldness. Sympathy comes mainly from women with deep secret hurts. As the disease drives the narrator from city to city, and from woman to woman, and doctor to doctor, it brings into relief many of America's follies and excesses. After more than fifteen years, America brings the narrator not aspiration nor a largeness of life fitting to its open spaces, but the nascent ability to be satisfied with less.
August 11, 2012
This is an autobiographical narrative of life with chronic fatigue syndrome covering about 15 years--excruciating detail but with a certain amount of distance. King sums up the ways in which he has come to terms with his condition to make a life for himself that is rewarding. He does not write it in a way that comes across piteous, blaming, or self-absorbed. It is an eye opener about the disease and his concluding summing up chapters are moving and wise (not preachy)--valuable to anyone. The final chapter is about his dog Arthur. I surprised myself by crying buckets over this chapter.
September 27, 2012
The cover on Love and Fatigue in America is the "picture that says a thousand words"
There is no way to describe what living with ME/CFIDS is truly like, but King seems to have captured it.
Taking comfort in knowing you are not alone in struggling seems selfish, but on the occasion of reading Love and Fatigue in America I was so happy (sad, uncomfortable, forgiven) to be selfish. For one who struggles without anyone REALLY understanding, or being able to put voice to the myriad pain, body and soul,of this dis-ease; this was a very welcoming read.
There is no way to describe what living with ME/CFIDS is truly like, but King seems to have captured it.
Taking comfort in knowing you are not alone in struggling seems selfish, but on the occasion of reading Love and Fatigue in America I was so happy (sad, uncomfortable, forgiven) to be selfish. For one who struggles without anyone REALLY understanding, or being able to put voice to the myriad pain, body and soul,of this dis-ease; this was a very welcoming read.
March 1, 2012
What could have easily been a glum self-pity piece turns out to be a mix of memoir, travelogue, fiction, and poetry that encapsulates "the labor of being sick in America" along with the essence of places like Spokane, WA and desert towns in New Mexico. My long(er) review ought to be forthcoming in a future issue of the TLS.
May 29, 2012
I can't believe this author's words can flow so beautifully while dealing with a lyme-like/CF/ME illness. I've read books by other authors who suffer from similar illnesses and this one is so easy to follow. Clearly, he wrote on his good days. And I applaud him.
November 26, 2012
Beautifully written. King does an excellent job of expressing what living with CFS is like and how challenging it can be to navigate relationships, work, medical care, and finding a true home and peace within oneself when faced with a life altering chronic illness. Highly recommend it.
July 6, 2012
This is a brave book and I'm glad to have read it.
July 16, 2012
Very good description and explanations of CFS. Even though he was promiscuous/casual about relationships, it seemed he needed something more, but didn't settle down or try well enough?
February 2, 2014
Not many stories about the devastating nature of cfs. For most a living death. At least he found a way to move with it even while it ate up his life.
July 5, 2012
pretty good book; excellent to gain an understanding of CFS
April 3, 2026
An autobiographical novel that shows a believable life with chronic fatigue. Not just how the disease limits your daily activities but also how it presents you with a series of doctors who can't help, and with friends and colleagues who don't understand the disease because they only see you in whatever time windows it allows you out your front door. Being set in the USA, there's also the added layer of navigating a system which intentionally hinders diagnosis and treatment.
That's the “fatigue” side of the book. What about “love”? For a man whose exertions are, by definition, severely constrained, his love life seems active. Sometimes I suspected wish-fulfilment or braggadocio. More generously, he may just have been an articulate intelligent man for whom women wanted to care, and with whom they felt secure. Later, as his condition deteriorates, he regrets that waitresses are the only sexual partners he can aspire to. Towards the end there's a memorable description of commercial sex which manages to be alluring without romanticising or glossing over its transactional nature.
Overall maybe the biggest achievement is to render all this with some kind of stoicism and good grace, even humour.
That's the “fatigue” side of the book. What about “love”? For a man whose exertions are, by definition, severely constrained, his love life seems active. Sometimes I suspected wish-fulfilment or braggadocio. More generously, he may just have been an articulate intelligent man for whom women wanted to care, and with whom they felt secure. Later, as his condition deteriorates, he regrets that waitresses are the only sexual partners he can aspire to. Towards the end there's a memorable description of commercial sex which manages to be alluring without romanticising or glossing over its transactional nature.
Overall maybe the biggest achievement is to render all this with some kind of stoicism and good grace, even humour.
May 26, 2026
I related a lot to the way the author spoke of his experiences moving from a relative healthy person to someone ill with ME/CFS. The initial shocking onset of symptoms, the many frustrating Dr visits, the way healthcare is handled in America (especially in contrast to his previous experiences with it in England), the way invisible illness is perceived by both others and oneself, and the way a person with ME needs to find their own boundaries and then stay well inside them in order to maximize what little life they have.
He also touches on the differences in culture, both broadly between the U.S. and England and regionally within the U.S. For the most part he has fairly common interactions with people, but he also includes (as one would, since they stand out in such contrast to everyday encounters) experiences of a sexual nature that definitely feel pretty odd and uncomfortable.
He acknowledges his privilege in having the ability to stop working and travel the country while so ill. And throughout the book, on what can feel like such a heavy topic, Roger infuses his British sense of humor into so much of his writing.
He also touches on the differences in culture, both broadly between the U.S. and England and regionally within the U.S. For the most part he has fairly common interactions with people, but he also includes (as one would, since they stand out in such contrast to everyday encounters) experiences of a sexual nature that definitely feel pretty odd and uncomfortable.
He acknowledges his privilege in having the ability to stop working and travel the country while so ill. And throughout the book, on what can feel like such a heavy topic, Roger infuses his British sense of humor into so much of his writing.
January 25, 2019
Was not expecting very much from this, to be honest, but I'm glad Roger proved me wrong.
Most personal accounts of illness tend to be dramatic and trite and piteous - words that, as any CFS-insider will know, in reality rarely apply to this illness.
I don't what else to say - it is beautifully written, humble and not without humour (...cause crying takes too much energy...). Highly recommended to anyone and everyone - this is not just a niche book about a niche illness, but a triumph of spirit and acceptance.
My best wishes to you, Roger, if you happen to be reading this. And thank you.
Most personal accounts of illness tend to be dramatic and trite and piteous - words that, as any CFS-insider will know, in reality rarely apply to this illness.
I don't what else to say - it is beautifully written, humble and not without humour (...cause crying takes too much energy...). Highly recommended to anyone and everyone - this is not just a niche book about a niche illness, but a triumph of spirit and acceptance.
My best wishes to you, Roger, if you happen to be reading this. And thank you.
March 6, 2017
Living with chronic fatigue is no joke! Just reading about it left me sad and drained. King tells the surface of everything, not dipping too deeply, conserving his energy. The reader gets to taste what it might be like to be him, passing time with wonderful people, but holding back from engaging fully and missing out on the potential richness of experience. Grateful for my good health.
September 10, 2022
Moving and poetic memoir of living with chronic illness, and the learning that comes from it.
May 7, 2012
great cover photo!
with all due respect to the author, for me, this narrative required a lot of patience & ended up being as frustrating as the illness he describes.
My favorite take on me/cfs is still Laura Hillenbrand's essay in the New Yorker in 2003.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs... essay
with all due respect to the author, for me, this narrative required a lot of patience & ended up being as frustrating as the illness he describes.
My favorite take on me/cfs is still Laura Hillenbrand's essay in the New Yorker in 2003.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs... essay
September 7, 2014
Roger King does a great job in truthfully describing his experience with sickness when stricken with ME/CFS. He is honest and open about every aspect of his life, which in my opinioin lends credibility to his accounts. It is a sad but necessary journey the reader takes through a portion of his life with this horrible chronic disease.
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