Lisa Ray Instagram – ‘Life Hugger’ a review of #ClosetotheBone by Sanjukta Sharma in Live Mint, 11 May 2019 . Lisa Ray’s memoir reveals a life of struggle and joy, and a gifted writer at work . . . Lisa Ray’s first book, Close To The Bone, is anything but a cancer memoir. Cancer can obliterate any identity other than that of a cancer survivor, at least in the minds of those who know the person. Ray was the first Indian from the glamour industry who shared her journey with the disease, even her steroid-fuelled “moon face” with the world, and is therefore known as one of those supercharged, inspiring survivors who continue to be associated with cancer long after she has left the disease behind. The book brings alive a life in entirety. Ray drifts in and out of black holes, sometimes loathing herself, sometimes blissfully free of self-pity, throughout the narrative, which begins with her childhood in a predominantly Italian neighbourhood in Toronto and ends with a fairy-tale marriage to management consultant Jason Dehni after healing from cancer. . Ray really can write, and that makes it an actor-model memoir that doesn’t depend entirely on anecdotal, name-dropping gloat—it reminded me of the books written by British actor Rupert Everett, also a great writer, but who writes with more savage glee. Memories do solidify into anecdotes, as we, and all memoirists, know, and good memoirs have intricate architecture and ideas around anecdotes. Their truth is not sullied by a lack of imagination.