Miracle Boy Grows Up: How the Disability Rights Revolution Saved My Sanity - Hardcover

Mattlin, Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1616087315 ISBN 13: 9781616087319

Publisher: Skyhorse, 2012

Synopsis

"An insightful, poignant, light-hearted and often hilarious memoir" (Jay McInerney).  Ben Mattlin lives a normal, independent life. Why is that interesting? Because Mattlin was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a congenital muscle weakness from which he was expected to die in childhood. Not only did Mattlin survive, he became one of the first students in a wheelchair to attend Harvard, from which he graduated and became a professional writer. His advantage? Mattlin's life happened to parallel the growth of the disability rights movement, so that in many ways he did not feel he was disadvantaged at all, merely different. 
Miracle Boy Grows Up is a witty, unsentimental memoir you won't forget, told with engrossing intelligence and a unique perspective on living with a disability in the United States.

About this title

About the Author:

Ben Mattlin was born in New York in 1962 with spinal muscular atrophy, a congenital neuromuscular weakness. He graduated from Harvard in 1984 and became a freelance writer. He's a frequent contributor to Financial Advisor magazine. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and USA Today, and been broadcast on NPR's "Morning Edition." He's also written for Self magazine and is a former contributing editor at Institutional Investor, the late Windows In Financial Services, Dealmaker, Buyside, and Individual Investor magazines.  He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, two daughters, a cat, and a turtle.

Review:

"In Miracle Boy, Ben Mattlin pulls off a nearly miraculous feat: creating an insightful, poignant, light-hearted and often hilarious memoir about life as a paraplegic.  Mattlin's resilience, his curiosity, and his steadfast refusal to see himself as a victim are inspiring; his prose is deft, wry and self-aware.  Like many of the best memoirs, this one brings you inside a beautiful mind." - Jay McInerney

"Fantastic! Funny ... interesting ... beautifully done!" - Jolie Mason, "Access Unlimited," KPFK radio, March 13, 2013

"Quite delicious ... Mattlin's timing is perfect, never over-analyzing or dwelling too long on any one subject. ... A compelling writer... poetic without being sentimental." - Roxanne Furlong, New Mobility magazine, January 2013 

"Ben Mattlin could be called many things: Iconoclast, sidesplitting, and wise, among them.  In Miracle Boy Grows Up, Mattlin demonstrates perhaps his greatest skill--as a master storyteller."
 - Lawrence Carter-Long, National Council on Disability

"In Miracle Boy Grows Up, Ben Mattlin spins the limitations of his genetic disease into literary gold. He tells his story with grace and candor, each beautifully crafted sentence illuminating not only his rich inner life but also the complex history of the disability rights movement."  - Hamilton Cain, Author of This Boy's Faith

"Mattlin tells the fascinating twin stories of his own life and the history of the disability rights movement. ... Deeply intelligent, utterly honest, funny, irritable, raunchy, companionable ... it is a love story, the story of a son, a father, and writer.  This book is a pleasure."  - Elizabeth McCracken

"Mattlin is candid about his challenges (e.g., finding a job, hiring attendants) but he isn't looking for pity, just understanding.  ... Those who do pick up this memoir will find a unique perspective that compares with Harriet McBryde Johnson's Too Late to Die Young." --Library Journal

"Born with a severe neuromuscular condition, writer and NPR commentator Mattlin pens the story of his life so far... While most people with this illness are unlikely to live to adulthood, Mattlin's story is filled with details of how he managed to beat the odds." -Kirkus Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1616087315
• ISBN 13: 9781616087319
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208