In honor of Disability Awareness Month, I decided to read a memoir about disability: Stephen Kuusisto‘s Planet of the Blind. It was a great choice, and I give it two thumbs up.

As a person with a disability, myself, I’m not a big fan of the disability memoir-genre. Typically, they tend to bemoan lost status (especially those written by authors with spinal cord injuries) or start out from the perspective of wanting to inspire readers. While Kuusisto does expend pages writing of his desire to “pass” in “normal” society, he uses more to show the folly of his attempts. In effect, Planet of the Blind is a story of disability acceptance.

Perhaps what I enjoyed most about Kuusisto’s work is that he is a poet, and his prose is stunning. For example: “My masculinity is fragile, my ego crawls around blindness like a snail exploring a piece of broken glass.” For the most part, readers are free from repeated clichés about overcoming and finding peace; Kuusisto has the vocabulary to invite readers more deeply into his thought processes and emotional responses.

In chart, if you are interested in reading something more than a memoir, consider Planet of the Blind.