'Would Everybody Please Stop' Is Serious, Funny And Seriously Funny

Years ago, when my mother-in-law was fighting what would turn out to be a losing battle with breast cancer, she was riding in a golf cart with my two small children when her wig blew off, briefly exposing her head, as bald as a golf ball. My daughter's eyes grew wide with alarm, but my mother-in-law quickly defused the moment with extraordinary aplomb: "Bet you can't do that with your hair, can you?"

I was reminded of this when reading Jenny, Allen considers the arguments for scarves versus wigs, which for her touch on deeper questions about her attitude toward illness: "What kind of cancer person was I going to be?" she wonders after her diagnosis in 2005. "Would I try to maintain my privacy? ... Was I all right with people knowing?" In the end, she opts mainly for scarves, saving her wig for special occasions — including a college graduation in Chicago under scorching sun. Dripping with sweat, she removes her sunhat, but to her horror, the wig comes off with it. Allen, like my mother-in-law, sees the humor, but she also worries about having shocked the people sitting behind her.