I knew I was going to purchase this novel once I read the opening blurb –
Do you judge a book by the cover? If so, get prepared for an unreal ride that blows the roof off what a quadriplegic’s life should look like. Is it inspirational, motivational, courageous, or outrageous? You’ll be shaking your head at his decision making but that’s the beauty of life. Are you living or are you just alive? Enjoy the unbelievable true story of an over 30 year quadriplegic’s journey from his accident at age 17 that explores the fascinating insight into the psychology of a man. Be warned, this book contains graphic sex talk and delves into what a horny quadriplegic would do to find love.
It proceeds to tell us about his various relationships with married women, his students, caregivers, co-workers and others. He has life changing injuries as a 17-year-old that leaves him as an incomplete quadriplegic. The way that the injury affects him is that he has feelings throughout his body but extremely little movement below his neck. He also has to deal with spasms and a considerable amount of pain.
He is an anti-hero, and my feeling is that the book will be enjoyed more by men than by women. He can be quite manipulative, basically saying anything to get lo get laid especially when he is his early twenties. Strangle, he believes it’s his opening lines that are where he’s at fault, but I feel its his love bombing that crosses the line. He also over promises and under delivers.
He is at his most callous with his first partner. She has mental health issues and he’s not that attracted to her, but getting laid is the most important thing. When they inevitably break up, she turns off his wheelchair, leaving him stranded. He is prepared to play with fire.
But, he appears to try harder to settle down as the years go by increasingly blaming the relationship failures on himself. I’m not sure. An inaccessible and hostile world had a lot to do with it too. The girlfriends’ houses being inaccessible, his care needs. It’s a death by a thousand cuts.
My favourite part of the book is the affair with the neighbour. Reading about the husband feeding him at her party was just something else. It’s a pity the book didn’t explore why he didn’t try to become more independent. He seems to be only prepared to move out with a caregiver whose a lover. This would be a heavy weight for anyone to bear. The standard advice would be to keep the roles separate as possible.
It’s his proclivity to mix these roles that lands him in difficulties when a former caregiver and lover betrays his trust and sends his college, details of his affair with a student. Personally, I think he should have reached some sort of compromise with her before this happened. She had warned him she might do this and he left her in pretty big difficulties. It has life long repercussions
By the end of the book, he sounds quite defeated. Unfortunately, living with severe physical disability rarely has a happy ending. It takes its toll and by the end I think he is too critical of his younger self.
I give this book five stars out of five.
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