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Young diabetic pens memorable memoirBy Ann Scholl BoyerGazette staff writerndie Dominick isn’t a fan cy writer. i^^^She doesn’t write elabo-rate metaphors. She doesn’t use flowery language.What the 26-year-old Des Moines author does do is write verv well, as is evident in herwfirst book, “Needles: A Memoir of Growing Up with Diabetes(Scribner. 220 pages, $22).BOOK REVIEW1 first read Dominick’s work in “The Healing Circle: Authors Writing of Recovery. 1 boughther book after hearing her readher piece from “The Healing Circle” at Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City. I enjoyed Dominick’s sense of humor. 1 also was curious: I wondered if someone that young could really pull off a book.She can.Dominick’s prose is crisp and clean. She’s funny. At times, she’s a smartass. Her writing often moved me to laughter. Occasionally, it moved me to tears. One might expect the opposite, given this is a book about a person with juvenile diabetes.Dominick, who teaches creative writing and first-year com position at Iowa State University, began writing the book in summer 1996. She was contacted by an agent after winning the 1995 Writer’s Digest Award for Best Essay. The book sold to Scribner in October 1996 and was published last month.Dominick began writing shortly after the death of her sister, who also was diabetic. Her writing turned into this memoir as she reflected on what her family had struggled through for so many years.She hopes the book helpsthose struggling with diabetes as well as anyone who knows adiabetic.The book begins with Dominick as a child. At the time, she does not have the disease. Her big sister Denise has it. Dominick likes to retrieve her sister’se edie sA HI M O I PU fo mi 'v i h it rWITHO I A I t ? I IAND 1;1Z DOMINICKneedles from the trash and use them as squirt guns. She has diabetic Barbie dolls. She lines her stuffed animals up and shoots each one with a syringe full of water before dinner.When she writes of her childhood, the voice of a child comes through. The same can be said as she tells about the trials of the disease as a teen. The voicecontinues to ring true as anadult, a woman who has optedfor sterilization over risking dia betic complications in pregnancy.Dominick is a master at recreating scenes. She is very descriptive, using lots of small details to bring her life to life.She includes plenty of medical information about diabetes, but she slips it in so subtly I nevergot bogged down with the details.Some of her best writing comes through when she talks about her sister, whom Dominick finds dead in the home they shared. That scene, particularly, stays with me. That’s a sign of good writing.While diabetes has never touched my life, Dominick’s story touched my heart. Hopefully, she has more stories to tell. Her voice is fresh in its simplicity.)
Newspaper Details
Cedar Rapids Gazette
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US
Sun, Nov 01, 1998
Page 60
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 15 Feb 2020
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