Less Than Perfect

Love is fleeting, and so is life, and all anyone can do is to live each day to its fullest. But how can a seventeen-year-old who loses his leg to bone cancer and faces the specter of chemotherapy far from home accept that this too shall pass? Set in 1977 and narrated in his own voice, Less Than Perfect is the story of Eli Maguire, whose need for advanced medical care compels him to move from the only home he had ever known. But Boston, MA differs from East Tennessee in so many ways. How would he cope with life in a strange new city and adapt to a wooden leg and the devastating effects of chemotherapy? He meets Carole, herself diagnosed with Stage 4 AML, and their common illness creates an intimate bond. Her zest for life becomes his. But as Carole succumbs to her illness, so does Eli to his worst impulses. His own future becomes uncertain. Diagnosed with Stage 4 osteosarcoma, will he even survive?