A Fresh Outlook

Review of The Bucket List By Georgia Clark

By Margaret Mallison, Intern Writer

Edited By Kiara Timo-Vaughn, Lead Editorial Intern

Meet Lacey Whitman. She’s a twenty-something millennial juggling burgeoning ambition and an acerbic wit in a high-powered fashion company. She, along with her whip-smart business partner Vivian, are in the process of creating an app with a new take on personal shopping. Her so-called “perfect life” is tilted off of its axis after a routine gene test comes back positive for the BRCA1 gene. Georgia Clark’s “The Bucket List” follows Lacey through her world as she struggles to define her sexuality, family, career, and feminine identity in the wake of a breast cancer diagnosis. Clark stunningly incorporates a millennial perspective and blunt sensuality in a genre often left to brutal despair and mourning as a consequence of the disease.

Prior to scheduling a mastectomy that, for all intents and purposes, changes most everything Lacey understands about sex; thus, a “bucket list” is created in the meantime. In a plot-twist that we all saw coming, Lacey’s list only justifies some questionable decisions she makes in her love life. To be fair to Lacey, and others in her similar situation, a brush with one’s own mortality leaves some leeway for missteps along the way. Millennial readers are sure to get a kick out of Lacey’s sexual hijinks. Clark depicts a uniquely sexual millennial experience;whether it be from scheduling a threesome with two YouTubers within minutes or hiding an illicit relationship with a handsome man twice her age from Instagram. Both situations are met with Clark’s sharp honesty often left out of modern books and movies; Lacey remarks on both the electrifying orgasms and the awkwardness of knocking teeth together.

Throughout the novel, Lacey explores her mother’s history with the disease through her own experiences. Although her friends, Steph and Vivian, are initially enthusiastically supportive, Lacey finds more comfort in confiding in her sister and other “previvors” on chat rooms. The other Previvors, like Lacey, were diagnosed early with the increased risk of contracting breast cancer in the future. By including other women’s stories in the novel, Clark develops a complex cancer story not often found in popular culture. Lacey, along with her Previvor friends, struggle to define their feminine identity before and after a mastectomy; the sexual list is a bleak example of that. Clark weaves together sexuality and feminine identity in her characters’ sense of worth. Her portrayal of people suffering from cancer extends beyond the typical chemotherapy processes and instead reaches for sexual and social stigmas surrounding Lacey and other Previvors as they decide their treatment plan.  

Working at a fashion company, Lacey’s whole life prior to testing positive is centered on appearances, and working to maintain the “right” one. Fashion, through Clark’s lens, abandons all superficiality and is instead reborn as an extension of one’s soul. The right blouse or particularly special pair of pumps means all the difference in different situations. Lacey views fashion as another form of self-expression, but places it above thought or belief in an idea; she would rather exude an idea than introduce it. In terms of the millennial experience, most of our generation has some form of social media to express themselves on. In the end, Lacey leaves her fashion-made image behind in favor of an authentic portrayal of herself and her struggle with the disease.

A must-read for the summer, Georgia Clark’s fresh look on cancer opens up the genre past the bleak despair following a diagnosis. By no means does she just blow over the devastation that the disease leaves, but instead crafts a character whose own vulnerability is molded into a rare sense of strength. Clark’s characterization creates a developed and complex world where no decision is left black and white, but is instead flecked with shades of gray. Women of all ages will undoubtedly enjoy following Lacey’s escapades through love, life, and friendship.

Georgia Clark is a novelist, screenwriter, and performer living in New York City. She’s the author of “The Regulars” and the YA novels “She’s With The Band” and “Parched”. She’s also the founder and host of the New York Times-recommended storytelling nigh Generation Women. A native Aussie, she lives in Brooklyn with her girlfriend and a fridge full of cheese.