This memoir adds a rare chapter to the annals of suffering. He doesn’t care about inspiring us; he wants to teach us what it’s like to live with diminishment. His frustrations were sometimes petty (not being able to swallow his own spit) and someti mes profound - not being able to run his lifeless hand through his young son’s hair. Sometimes he was stoic, occasionally self-pitying. There is, of course, gallows humor. On Father’s Day, his son asked, ““Want to play hangman?’’ ““I ache to tell him tha t I have enough on my plate playing quadriplegic.''
This is surely a testament to the human spirit, but it is always plain-spoken and never high-minded. Its real subject is the astonishing instinct to survive, no matter how degrading the circumstances. And it leaves you praying that nothing like thi s ever happens to you.
