The Cost of Hope: A Memoir by Amanda Bennett

The Cost of Hope:  A Memoir

Amanda Bennett

Random House Publishing Group

Original Edition (June 5, 2012)

IBSN:  978-1-4000-6984-2

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Amanda Bennett has lived a pretty big life so far – Harvard graduate, author, Pulitzer Prize winner, reporter for the The Wall Street Journal, editor of the Herald-Leader (Lexington, KY), managing editor of the The Oregonian, and the first female editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, now an Executive Editor at Bloomberg News.  Yet her deeply personal and moving memoir is not about any of these things.  Or rather, it is about all these things, but only as they reflect in the relationship she had with her husband of 20 years, Terence Bryan Foley, and the fight with cancer that eventually claimed his life.

Cancer is shot through this book; it is not something that Bennett uses to ambush the reader or to eke out any kind of sentimentality.  Indeed, we know that Terence succumbs to the disease in the Prologue, before the story really starts, even though in the timeline of his life it is not discovered until 13 years into their marriage.  This book is not a journal, it is a memoir; it is not so much a chest thumping and a “why us?” as much as it is a “did we do the right thing?”and, just as importantly, how did the medical and insurance industries respond and react to what the Bennett-Foley household was going through.  It is a journey not just of two people through a catastrophic disease, but through a cacophony of procedures and invoicing that proved as insurmountable to understanding as were the appearance of mutant cells in Terence’s body.

That’s not to say that this book is an indictment of the medical field.  The doctors and hospital staff that worked with Terence were caring and efficient and kind, genuinely dedicated to understanding and helping Terence beat his cancer by any means possible.  And, due to Amanda and Terence’s position in society and to the generosity of Amanda’s employers, there were no real concerns about costs or whether a procedure, treatment or drug would be denied due to insurance issues.  But because at her core she is a researcher and investigator, Amanda wanted to know what the economic ramifications of Terence’s illness were, along with symptoms and prognoses and expectations.  And since this is a memoir, she shares with us not only what was happening, but also the questions, fears, and triumphs that she endured during this journey with a man whose personality spilled over and captivated her life.

Amanda Bennett first met Terence Bryan Foley at a party in 1983, in a Peking (now Beijing), China that was “still enmeshed in the shock and trauma” that was Mao’s Cultural Revolution.  She was a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, and he was… what?  A Fulbright scholar.  An expert on Sino-Soviet politics.  Erudite.  Witty.  Perhaps, just perhaps, maybe, a government operative?  A spy?  No – a liar.  Later, she finds out that he was really with the American Soybean Association.  When she confronts him about not being upfront with her at the start, he responds that he wanted to talk to her, and “How long would you have talked to me if I told you I was in soybeans?”.  She stomps away, furious.  But she sees him again, drawn together by the isolation of their shared surroundings, but also because he was a match to her own forceful personality.  She writes:

Why do I keep meeting with this man?  At forty-four, he’s twelve years older than I am.  He’s chubby.  No, he’s overweight.  He wears owl glasses and bow ties.  He’s crazy.  And we’re angry with each other almost twenty-four hours a day.

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