Stardust to Stardust: Reflections on Living and Dying

by Erik Olin Wright

Erik Olin Wright, one of the most important sociologists of his time, takes readers along on his intimate and brave journey toward death, and asks the big questions about human mortality.

From the renowned Marxist sociologist and educator Erik Olin Wright, Stardust to Stardust is a curated collection of writings from the months of his treatment and hospitalization for acute myeloid leukemia. This combination of personal narrative with Wright’s analytical perspective results in a deeply complex, philosophical meditation on death and the meaning of existence.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography, Religion

260 pages, Paperback

Published April 25, 2023

About the author

Erik Olin Wright was an American analytical Marxist sociologist, specializing in social stratification, and in egalitarian alternative futures to capitalism. He was the (2012) President of the American Sociological Association.
Erik Olin Wright received two BAs (from Harvard College in 1968, and from Balliol College in 1970), and the PhD from University of California, Berkeley, in 1976. Since that time, he has been a professor of sociology at University of Wisconsin - Madison.
Wright has been described as an "influential new left theorist." His work is concerned mainly with the study of social classes, and in particular with the task of providing an update to and elaboration of the Marxist concept of class, in order to enable Marxist and non-Marxist researchers alike to use 'class' to explain and predict people's material interests, lived experiences, living conditions, incomes, organizational capacities and willingness to engage in collective action, political leanings, etc. In addition, he has attempted to develop class categories that would allow researchers to compare and contrast the class structures and dynamics of different advanced capitalist and 'post-capitalist' societies.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prior to reading this book, I had heard of Erik Olin Wright but hadn’t read any of his work. I bought this book because I had to spend a certain amount of money to get free shipping on my Haymarket Books order. I am so very glad I got this book. You don’t have to know Erik or his work to enjoy this book; you don’t have to have any interest in politics or sociology. Stardust to Stardust is a beautifully human story for all people.

This book is a collection of blog posts written by the sociologist Erik Olin Wright chronicling his diagnosis and battle with leukemia. This seems like it would a huge downer to read, but it somehow isn’t. Yes, it is a weird experience to read someone’s diary as they experience the thing you know will ultimately kill them. And yes, this is a sad book—but the experience of reading it is wonderfully uplifting.

I couldn't put this book down. While reading it, I found myself simultaneously hoping Erik would pull through and bracing myself because I knew he wouldn’t. But it was never a downer and never a drag. I felt myself rooting for him the entire time, eagerly awaiting his next update. A huge part of the appeal of this book is Erik’s steadfast kindness, humor, and optimism. Even in the face of a dire prognosis, he still had such warmth, patience, and gratitude for his life. I can only hope I have such a calm and positive mindset when my time on Earth is coming to an end.

While it is an inspiring and uplifting book, Stardust to Stardust does not rely on fake saccharine positivity. Erik wrote honestly to his readers when he was feeling scared, when he was in a lot of pain, or when he felt downright miserable. But the book never veers into maudlin or overly depressive territory. And it is surprisingly funny at times! Erik showed incredible resilience and honesty in the face of a physically and emotionally grueling battle with cancer.

Erik’s boundless curiosity makes this book a pleasure to read. He asks many questions of the doctors and nurses and has philosophical conversations with them on the nature of their work. He learns the life story of the phlebotomist who’s the best at drawing his blood. I also really enjoyed Erik’s sociological analysis of hospitals. Ever the academic, he muses about how the small staff-to-patient ratios, the long breaks that staff get between shifts, and even the physical layout of the cancer ward all help patients have better outcomes at this hospital than at many others. Even in the face of an ultimately fatal cancer, he was still endlessly fascinated by the social world around him and did a remarkable job sharing his fascination with his readers.

I especially liked how this book illuminates the dark and mysterious experience of battling cancer. My late mother was diagnosed with cancer when she was just ten years old. As an adult, she rarely discussed her experience with cancer; I knew she’d fought some kind of challenging, near-death battle, but I had no idea what that was actually like. Erik painstakingly details many of his treatments in the book, including the rollercoaster process of getting a bone marrow transplant, and this helped me understand what my mother must have gone through. Reading this book made me realize just how lucky my mom was to survive her fight with cancer—and by extension, how lucky I am that she survived so that I could live as well.

Finally, I was deeply moved by Erik’s relationship with his wife, Marcia. The undercurrent of their unwavering dedication to each other pervades the entire story. While Erik was in treatment, caring for him became Marcia's full time job, and she handled that responsibility with such grace and kindness. The number of smoothies this poor woman must have made! I found Erik and Marcia’s deep love for each other to be one of the most beautiful parts of this book.

I’m not an openly emotional person, but this book moved me to tears. I finished it on a plane and cried at the end. I had to obscure my face with the book so the passenger sitting beside me wouldn’t see the tears streaming down my cheeks (always buy the hardcover for this reason!).

Overall, reading Stardust to Stardust filled me with such incredible gratitude for my life, for my good health, for the people I love, and for everything I’ve experienced. I finished this book a week ago, and this feeling still has not worn off. Erik’s dedication to facing his own death with grace and dignity—and his deep love for all the people in his life—really changed my perspective on my own life. Reading this book made me wish I could have known Erik. I am so glad he wrote the blog that would later become this book, and that he shared his bleakest final moments with the world with strength, courage, and laughter. What a beautiful human with an immense love of life and of other people.

[Montana Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more I read, the more attached I became to EOW and the more painful it became to read, knowing that he would die. Reading his plans for living while holding this knowledge of his future was at times almost unbearable. I feel so moved to have read his thoughts and reactions, from the mundane to the terrifying, and to witness his inner dialogue. Even after death, he has touched another human being and made her life more vibrant in the process.

[Nick DeFiesta · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow. one part illness narrative, one part (non-trite), as the subtitle goes, reflection on living and dying. with some sociology and marxism tossed in here and there. hard to stop reading.

[Maggie Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an absolutely wonderful book. It feels a little backwards that I read this before any of his other books but now I am really excited to see what else he was written. I am not going to say too much because I actually got this book as a Christmas gift for the one person who actively follows me on GoodReads but I really enjoyed it.

One of my favorite quotes:
"Hope and optimism are close cousins, but not the same." Page 209

[Tyler Weed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I have been looking for a way to read this for 2 years and I finally found jt. This was so much more powerful than I thought it could be, and my expectations had started high. His courage and joy despite his condition was really inspiring, and I thought it would be doing a disservice to not leave any sort of review. Unfortunately, nothing I could say would surpass the wisdom he shared in his entries, so I’ll just share what I found to be the most poignant of his words rather than too many of my own:

“If love is false, there is nothing, nothing.”

Erik had some incredible views on life. A lot of this book is some very somber updates on his medical condition, but the sections between those entries are so beautiful and are made even more incredible by the fact that they were written by him while his health was deteriorating. He gave great music and book recommendations and of course shared a lot of wonderful ideas.

The last few sentences of his blog demonstrate a type of peace and comfort I hope anyone can eventually find. As his lungs were beginning to fail, he wrote that he and his doctors had seen this coming: “But this is to be expected. It’s one of the things that happen in late-stage AML. And I’m okay. I’m okay.”

[Lukas Wierer · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, EOW is not only journaling about his experience with dying (and living), but also is attempting to finish his book and write a letter to his family. Having read, "How to be an Anti-Capitalist in the Twenty-First Century" as well as other articles, I knew that we were ideologically in agreement, but the more I read, the more I realized that we agreed on a lot of philosophical ideas related to living and dying.

The first half of the book was a 4, but I still found myself very interested in learning about his disease, acute myeloid leukemia and the intricacies involved in his treatment. Being from Milwaukee I had the connection to Froedert and intimately understood the places he was writing about. The truth is it did not take long to get invested in him as a person because of the way others speak of him and the tenderness and caring that is evident in how he talks about the world. This investment in him is what made this book so difficult to complete knowing he ultimately would not survive his illness.

Maybe my favorite excerpt from the book was what he described as a basic sociological idea, that "individual capacities flourish or flounder depending on the social environment in which they exist," He puts this idea forward in discussing the treatment he receives, but I really felt this as an educator in Milwaukee.

I also really appreciated how he talked about a "just society," in that it is one in which, "all people had equal access to the social and material means necessary to live a flourishing life," He is very clear in using flourishing over happy, even though he admits unhappiness can get in the way of flourishing. The problem, he argues, is that happiness is so easy to artificially create, but when social institutions allow individuals to flourish it will lead to lasting, and not fleeting happiness.

I was finishing this book while on a flight home from vacation, and that was not a great idea. Especially the section "clarifying my final weeks," I was openly crying in the middle seat. He writes of the immense privilege that he has had, but also about living (what that means) at the end of life. Just over a year ago my parents named me power of attorney over health decisions, and I suspect it is because they know that I hold very similar views on end of life decisions as those described by EOW...

"Five weeks of living the way I felt last night when I was coughing uncontrollably is not just some tradeoff with two weeks of living without it. Five weeks of living like that is not living. So I've told doctors that from here on out, my priority really is comfort. Not being drugged so that I'm loopy and just feeling physically comfortable--I want to be mentally comfortable too. I want to connect and be able to continue writing this blog 'til the end. But my priority is to be present. And then let the length be what it is. It will end soon; hopefully it will last as long as possible, but only in the context of being truly alive."

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

After I finished this book, I wondered who the intended audience was. I had imagined it to be a kind of “When Breath Becomes Air: Prominent Social Scientist Edition,” but it’s only a minority of posts in which EOW does in fact reflect on living and dying (or structure and agency, or his grandchildren, or the nature of historical memory or the enterprise of sociology, or…). When you consider that this book is a reprint of his blog from CaringBridge, in which he was simply trying to keep his friends, family, and colleagues updated on the progress of his cancer, this makes sense. So it falls short of being a full-blown memoir of living with a terminal illness by definition.

And as an account of an experience of living with and dying of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) (and receiving a bone marrow transplant along the way), it’s probably already outdated, just given the constant evolution of cancer care.

But there’s a saying in academe, “Scratch a theory; find a biography.” EOW was about as prominent a social scientist as they come--and, even more rare, he was an optimistic one. Whereas I’m not sure I would read an end-of-life journal from any given prominent scholar within my field of interest or expertise, in this case it may well enrich one’s understanding of EOW’s scholarly ideas to get to know the personality behind them. (I can’t vouch for this personally, having not read any of his scholarly books.) It is something to remain optimistic, matter-of-fact, and appreciative of life on one’s deathbed--and I think I would be inclined to "believe" his scholarly ideas that much more, knowing the extent to which they really were fundamentally a reflection of his personality.

It’s also unusual for scholars of any stripe to even acknowledge that they live anywhere besides in their heads (i.e., certainly not in their bodies!). EOW deserves some serious props for being so frank about a domain that many academics are very uncomfortable in and certainly would not post about on a public CaringBridge page.

The same prominence that makes this book viable also makes EOW a little annoying, especially early on in the book/blog (i.e., before the cancer takes over, alas). He was a White man of a certain age who was a tenured professor at a major research university, and every so often I read a passage that seemed to reflect that and went “Wha--?” For example:
- His realization that “the capacity to exert effort may just be outside of one’s control.” (p. 11) Glad he finally got there, I guess?
- The discussion about how having joy in one’s work was more important than any achievements (true; also much easier to accomplish if you are fortunate enough to have a job that has given you both) (p. 24)
- “...since I am very chatty, have interesting things to say, and am always eager to foster personal relations, my experience could be very different than that of many other patients.” (p. 36) This may just be the introvert in me speaking, but isn’t it up to others to say whether what you have to say is interesting?!
He does acknowledge his privilege a couple times, to his credit.

I will say, it was heart-wrenching to read this in "actual book" form and watch the pages in my right hand dwindle, even before he knew that the end was near. :/

[Marina]

Thankyou Haymarketbooks for book discount from $26.99 into $ 2.70

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of wisdom and heart. A touching account from diagnosis to death that will stay with me.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

blog posts from a dying cancer patient.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I would like to thank Haymarket Books for giving me a copy to review. Since the book developed from a series of blogs, I thought my review should follow the same structure, notes as I progess. Just reading the first few pages has hit me strongly, which I'll sum up with three words: leukemia, intellectual, extrovert. The first two are points the author and I have in common, in the last one we are opposites.

I have a feeling this will be a slow read, when I'll have to put the book down for a while, both because of content and context, as I deal with my own medical problems. But simultaneously this book is exactly the written community I need: continuing a life of the mind as one lays dying.

Serendipity: I begin to read on January 23, 2023. Erik Olin Wright died on January 23, 2019. Time to start reading.

Jan. 27. Missed a few days b/c I had a bad seizure on Jan. 24, which wiped me out. But back on track, thoughts on what I've read so far: again, I find points of commonality, such as the idea of Marxism as an intellectual structure rather than a political theory, since I come from a background in literary criticism while he uses Marxism in Sociology. His description (p.10-11) of the "marrow-thon," illustrating the difference between motivation and capability, having to accept a "new norm," is almost identical to my attempts to walk after my first brain surgery. But I found it astonishing he could minimize a bike accident that almost killed him when compared to his situation facing AML (p.22). Especially when the bone marrow biopsy was such a big deal– I had my first one at age 14, many, many others through the years, and, while I am definitely not the bravest person on Earth, never saw this procedure as much of an obstacle.
Best part of all so far: Erik Wright's description of how his illness is transforming his sociological theory. Rarely do people have such insight or the ability to apply theory to practice in such personally traumatic circumstances. "Emancipatory social science" based on love (p.28).

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would characterize it as more of a memoir of an experience of his journey with AML than as reflections on living and dying, but that was my takeaway from it. Perhaps I couldn’t help but focus on the medical side of things since that is the field that I work in, but I was hoping for more reflections on living and dying, and while I greatly enjoyed those parts-they were often deeply moving- they were fewer and farther between than I would have liked. With the knowledge of hindsight, knowing that this book was constructed with entries from his caring-bridge website, it is really not at all surprising, and certainly can’t be faulted.

It was enjoyable, just not what I was hoping for.