“What are you trying to tell us?” Laurie forced herself to ask.

“Neuroblastomas, particularly with very young patients like your son, can be unpredictable. They can just suddenly resolve—cure themselves, if you will. Or they can respond to treatment like this. Were your son’s rather extensive or widely spread?”

“Very widely spread,” Laurie said, beginning to allow herself to accept what she was seeing, no tumors, and what she was hearing, that JJ was cured. Had it been spontaneous as Dr. Effron suggested, or had it been the mouse antibody from Memorial, or had it been Jamilla, Laurie had no idea, but at the moment she truly didn’t care.

Bibliography

Bibliography

During the research for Intervention I was fascinated by the rich history of early Christianity and the realities of the alternative-medicine issue. For those who might want to read further about both issues, I recommend the following:

Bausell, R. Barker. Snake Oil Science, Oxford, 2007

Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church, Penguin, Revised Edition, 1993.

Matkin, J. Michael. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Gnostic Gospels, Alpha, 2005.

Matkin, J. Michael. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Early Christianity, Alpha, 2008.

Pagels, Elaine. The Gnostic Gospels, Vintage, 1979.

Singh, Simon, and Edzard Ernst, M.D. Trick or Treatment, Norton, 2008.

Walsh, John Evangelist. The Bones of St. Peter, Doubleday, 1982.

Concerning the issue of sex and the modern Catholic Church, I’d recommend the short but thought-provoking article:

Carroll, James. “From Celibacy to Godliness,” The Boston Globe, page A19, April 9, 2002.