Scott McPherson's award-winning play Marvin's Room (adapted into a 1996 film with Meryl Streep) is full of sarcastic humor and blunt wisdom. In the play, Bessie, who is already saddled with the care of her ailing aunt and father, discovers that she has leukemia and must reconnect with her estranged sister and her sons in hopes that one can be a bone marrow donor.