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Journey
Journey [hardcover] Massie. Robert and Suzanne; Illustrator-Photographs [Jan 01, 1973]
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
2 people are currently reading
355 people want to read
About the author
Robert K. Massie
52 books1,634 followersRobert Kinloch Massie was an American historian, writer, winner of a Pulitzer Prize, and a Rhodes Scholar.
Born in Versailles, Kentucky, Massie spent much of his youth there and in Nashville, Tennessee. He studied American history at Yale University and modern European history at Oxford University on his Rhodes Scholarship. Massie went to work as a journalist for Newsweek from 1959 to 1964 and then took a position at the Saturday Evening Post.
After he and his family left America for France, Massie wrote and published his breakthrough book, Nicholas and Alexandra, a biography of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra of Hesse, and their family and cultural/political milieu. Massie's interest in the Tsar's family was triggered by the birth of his son, the Rev. Robert Kinloch Massie, who suffers from hemophilia, a hereditary disease that also afflicted the last Tsar's son, Alexei. In 1971, the book was the basis of an Academy Award–winning film of the same title. In 1995, in his book The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, Massie updated Nicholas and Alexandra with much newly discovered information.
In 1975, Robert Massie and his then-wife Suzanne chronicled their experiences as the parents of a hemophiliac child and the significant differences between the American and French healthcare systems in their jointly written book, Journey.
Massie won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Peter the Great: His Life and World. This book inspired a 1986 NBC mini-series that won three Emmy Awards, starring Maximilian Schell, Laurence Olivier and Vanessa Redgrave.
Born in Versailles, Kentucky, Massie spent much of his youth there and in Nashville, Tennessee. He studied American history at Yale University and modern European history at Oxford University on his Rhodes Scholarship. Massie went to work as a journalist for Newsweek from 1959 to 1964 and then took a position at the Saturday Evening Post.
After he and his family left America for France, Massie wrote and published his breakthrough book, Nicholas and Alexandra, a biography of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra of Hesse, and their family and cultural/political milieu. Massie's interest in the Tsar's family was triggered by the birth of his son, the Rev. Robert Kinloch Massie, who suffers from hemophilia, a hereditary disease that also afflicted the last Tsar's son, Alexei. In 1971, the book was the basis of an Academy Award–winning film of the same title. In 1995, in his book The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, Massie updated Nicholas and Alexandra with much newly discovered information.
In 1975, Robert Massie and his then-wife Suzanne chronicled their experiences as the parents of a hemophiliac child and the significant differences between the American and French healthcare systems in their jointly written book, Journey.
Massie won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Peter the Great: His Life and World. This book inspired a 1986 NBC mini-series that won three Emmy Awards, starring Maximilian Schell, Laurence Olivier and Vanessa Redgrave.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 3, 2012
Read this as a teenager and I remember that it really affected me. I loved how the chapters were alternately written by the mother and father. The Massies recount their journey of raising a son who is a hemophiliac.
I found the photographs haunting, and felt a real connection with the son. I hope I can find this book and read it again.
Bought it used from B & N and started it last night. I was planning to reread this before looking up the current status of the disease's treatments. But I couldn't wait so I goggled it last night. The son Bobbie is a year older than I am and he has had a most fascinating life up to this point. Just a few years ago he had a living donor liver transplant and is now cured! The donor has 55 to 70% of their liver removed. In 4-6 weeks the donor's liver is fully functional and shortly thereafter it grows back to it's original size. Remarkable! This is not done to cure hemophilia but Bob had hepatitis 3 which destroyed his liver. The liver makes the blood's clotting factors so being cured of hemophilia was a bonus. In the 1970's when hemophiliacs were getting aids from transfusions, Bob didn't. He was immune to aids so scientists have studied him carefully. Aside from the unusual medical history, Bob has had an interesting life. An Episcopal minister, crusader against apartheid,
and a politician to name a few of his accomplishments.
As far as reading Journey: BRILLIANT! Really loved it the second time around. It's out of print so if any of my friends wish to read it, I'll be more than happy to loan it out. It's odd to read the medical costs that the Massie family incurred with this disease. Compared to today's prices 50 years later, it's like a 1000% increase. With the current health care policy debates, this story is as timely as ever. It's dreadful but it seems we have made no progress at all!
Massie is the author of Nicholas and Alexandra which he researched and wrote about because his own son was a hemophiliac. I read that many years ago and loved it too. Last fall I read his latest book Catherine the Great. Massie is a superb historical author.
I found the photographs haunting, and felt a real connection with the son. I hope I can find this book and read it again.
Bought it used from B & N and started it last night. I was planning to reread this before looking up the current status of the disease's treatments. But I couldn't wait so I goggled it last night. The son Bobbie is a year older than I am and he has had a most fascinating life up to this point. Just a few years ago he had a living donor liver transplant and is now cured! The donor has 55 to 70% of their liver removed. In 4-6 weeks the donor's liver is fully functional and shortly thereafter it grows back to it's original size. Remarkable! This is not done to cure hemophilia but Bob had hepatitis 3 which destroyed his liver. The liver makes the blood's clotting factors so being cured of hemophilia was a bonus. In the 1970's when hemophiliacs were getting aids from transfusions, Bob didn't. He was immune to aids so scientists have studied him carefully. Aside from the unusual medical history, Bob has had an interesting life. An Episcopal minister, crusader against apartheid,
and a politician to name a few of his accomplishments.
As far as reading Journey: BRILLIANT! Really loved it the second time around. It's out of print so if any of my friends wish to read it, I'll be more than happy to loan it out. It's odd to read the medical costs that the Massie family incurred with this disease. Compared to today's prices 50 years later, it's like a 1000% increase. With the current health care policy debates, this story is as timely as ever. It's dreadful but it seems we have made no progress at all!
Massie is the author of Nicholas and Alexandra which he researched and wrote about because his own son was a hemophiliac. I read that many years ago and loved it too. Last fall I read his latest book Catherine the Great. Massie is a superb historical author.
December 3, 2011
An intimate look at the life of a family living with chronic illness. Rather than write as "we," Massie and his wife Suzanne wrote the book in alternating chapters labeled with their initials. Journey is brutally honest and at times painful to read. Suzanne writes of the crushing fatigue brought on by the eternal vigilance it took to keep an inquisitive, active little boy with hemophilia from tripping over the coffee table or falling down the steps, the pain of watching their son trying to make friends at school when he couldn't always join his classmates kicking a football around the playground, the misunderstandings of the general public, the enormous financial burden the illness imposed on the Massie family. She writes of sitting up with him when he was in excruciating pain from a bleeding into his joints. Robert writes about his work as a writer, showing how his son's hemophilia spurred his interest in the Tsarevich Alexei of Russia, leading him to write Nicholas and Alexandra. He tries to raise awareness about America's completely effed-up free-market medical system. This was the mid-1970's. He hadn't seen anything yet.
June 9, 2022
This book changed my life!
The Pitt Greeks were the largest blood donor pool in SW PA when I was in school. We had to donate as pledges, and after giving, I went back to the ADPi suite, whining about it. A wise sister gave me the book "Journey" by Robert & Suzanne Massie, about raising a hemophiliac. She said, "If you can read this and never donate blood again, so be it." Until my move to Chicagoland, I have given blood at least twice a year since, and have been in the Gallon Club.
I have read Journey several times since, but not very recently. I know that my copy is tattered & is storage, but it most definitely a good read. The chapters alternate between Robert, then Suzanne, and towards the end, add Bobbie. As I was preparing to leave this review, I saw another with an update on Bobbie, and was so happy to see his latest updates!
Only gave it 5 stars because I cannot give any more.
The Pitt Greeks were the largest blood donor pool in SW PA when I was in school. We had to donate as pledges, and after giving, I went back to the ADPi suite, whining about it. A wise sister gave me the book "Journey" by Robert & Suzanne Massie, about raising a hemophiliac. She said, "If you can read this and never donate blood again, so be it." Until my move to Chicagoland, I have given blood at least twice a year since, and have been in the Gallon Club.
I have read Journey several times since, but not very recently. I know that my copy is tattered & is storage, but it most definitely a good read. The chapters alternate between Robert, then Suzanne, and towards the end, add Bobbie. As I was preparing to leave this review, I saw another with an update on Bobbie, and was so happy to see his latest updates!
Only gave it 5 stars because I cannot give any more.
May 9, 2014
Author's son has hemophilia like the Tsar's son did. This is his story. Another reason I'm hooked on anything by Robert K. Massie. Never disappointed by his books, history or memoir.
August 16, 2018
Like many people who have read Journey, presumably, I've been a fan of Robert K. Massie's writing since I read Nicholas and Alexandra when I was a little girl, which is what led me to pick up this book at a used bookstore. The author's name alone was enough to entice me to the book, and I was not disappointed. Robert Massie and his wife, Suzanne, tell the stressful and hectic tale of their son's journey with hemophilia, speaking as parents and personal healthcare providers and crusaders for better treatment. Robert Massie's experience and interest in hemophilia, on this personal level, is of course what prompted him to research and write Nicholas and Alexandra, and reading his personal struggle with the disease alongside the process to write a historical account of the famous "disease of kings" provided an entirely new insight to that book.
Alternatingly narrated by Robert and Suzanne Massie, and, at times, with young Bobby Massie adding commentary along the way, the book is a very personal and informative look at the life or someone with a chronic illness. It could be a dull memoir, of the Massies seeking sympathy and telling a spiritual story of how they overcame struggles, but Journey was so much more than that. It was a memoir, yes, but also a journalistic endeavor, an expose, a proposal—all of these would-be-genres came together in a very strong narrative tale about how American healthcare should be reformed (same discussions forty years ago as there are now) to better suit its patients, and how drug companies are throwing patients under the bus, and even how charities and rich celebrities skew policy agendas for their own fame and greed rather than the good of a society.
I was thrilled that the same journalistic and straightforward fact-telling that Robert Massie included in all his books about Russian monarchs was also much at play in Journey—it was his style of writing, combined with a more reflective, perhaps motherly style of his wife, that made the book a very insightful, engaging read. I learned very much about hemophilia, of course, but also blood types and transfusions, healthcare policies, pharmaceutical companies, and more. These were the same subjects that the Massies went on justifiable rants about, and I loved it. The book was fascinating and beautifully written as a memoir but also memorable enough to be a fight for what they believed was right. Although the subject could be a bit esoteric at times—and both Massies had an annoying tendency to wax eloquent for too long sometimes—it was clearly a long-labored effort that paid off to tell their story in their own words.
Alternatingly narrated by Robert and Suzanne Massie, and, at times, with young Bobby Massie adding commentary along the way, the book is a very personal and informative look at the life or someone with a chronic illness. It could be a dull memoir, of the Massies seeking sympathy and telling a spiritual story of how they overcame struggles, but Journey was so much more than that. It was a memoir, yes, but also a journalistic endeavor, an expose, a proposal—all of these would-be-genres came together in a very strong narrative tale about how American healthcare should be reformed (same discussions forty years ago as there are now) to better suit its patients, and how drug companies are throwing patients under the bus, and even how charities and rich celebrities skew policy agendas for their own fame and greed rather than the good of a society.
I was thrilled that the same journalistic and straightforward fact-telling that Robert Massie included in all his books about Russian monarchs was also much at play in Journey—it was his style of writing, combined with a more reflective, perhaps motherly style of his wife, that made the book a very insightful, engaging read. I learned very much about hemophilia, of course, but also blood types and transfusions, healthcare policies, pharmaceutical companies, and more. These were the same subjects that the Massies went on justifiable rants about, and I loved it. The book was fascinating and beautifully written as a memoir but also memorable enough to be a fight for what they believed was right. Although the subject could be a bit esoteric at times—and both Massies had an annoying tendency to wax eloquent for too long sometimes—it was clearly a long-labored effort that paid off to tell their story in their own words.
February 8, 2018
Pretty interesting although depressing story of the Massie family's struggle with hemophilia. The parents' writing style seems very dated to me, but the story is a compelling one. Bobby, the son with hemophilia, was so unfortunate to have this disease but pretty fortunate to have parents determined for him to have as many opportunities as possible. I heard someone on the radio mention this book and tracked it down. I don't really recommend it unless you're interested in hemophilia or family life with a chronic illness.
October 22, 2020
I read this back in 1975 when it was first published. I learned (and relearned) much about hemophilia and what it was like to live with it. The medical and scientific information is interesting but a bit out dated. I do not believe it is an easy disease to live with and with health insurance still not available to all, it is still very expensive to families, with or without insurance. An interesting read.
July 2, 2018
Read this so many years ago very
Good
Good
August 19, 2013
Read this the first time decades ago. But I liked it better this time. The Massies write alternating chapters on the process of caring for their son who suffered from hemophilia--by turns harrowing and joyous. This experience sparked the couple's interest in the history of this disease which led to several books on the Russian royal family. Really good.
July 15, 2012
Read this around 1975-76. Great insight to the experience of raising a son with hemophilia. Certainly provided context to the Massie's research and writing "Nicholas and Alexandra". I wonder how much, if at all, the treatment of disease has changed since the 1970's.
July 22, 2008
This book taught me about the unexpected in life. Who knew when I read it in high school that I, too, would have a special needs son and that this books was good preparation for that?
July 3, 2013
Having had two brothers with hemophilia, this was a great book for me to read when I was a young woman.
August 28, 2015
I read this way back in College after reading Nicholas and Alexandra. It's the personl story of their son who with hemophilia, and was the inspiration for his tender telling of the Romanov tragedy.
January 29, 2016
The Massies wrote this book about their son who had hemophilia. That is how they became interested in the Romanovs and wrote the wonderful book Nicholas and Alexandra.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews