One Particular Harbor: The Outrageous True Adventures of One Women With Multiple Sclerosis Living in the Alaskan Wilderness - Softcover

James, Janet Lee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0595001157 ISBN 13: 9780595001156

Publisher: Iuniverse Inc, 2000

Synopsis

Janet Lee James was just twenty-three years old and just beginning a career as a rock ‘n’ roll disc-jockey when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Hoping she’d part of the vast majority who are able to lead full, productive lives relatively undisturbed by the disease, she took off alone for the wilds of Alaska, leaving home, work and family behind to live out her dream of a life filled with excitement and adventure.

Janet James’s penchant for black humor, cold beer and handsome men results in numerous outsized tales. Her story is a frank, detailed account of life with a profound disability -- a rare example of what MS can do. But through it all, she reminds us that life, regardless of its circumstances, truly is whatever we choose to make it.

About this title

About the Author:

Janet Lee James is a former radio personality whose work has graced the airwaves from the East Coast to Alaska. She lives in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is her first book.

From Publishers Weekly:

First-time author James offers the story of her life, a life spent struggling with multiple sclerosis, in clear and startling detail. Fresh out of college, she enjoys a plush existence as a copywriter for an ad agency until she begins to feel, among other things, a numbness in her leg. After ignoring the symptoms as long as possible, James undergoes a battery of tests, which she describes in unflinching and often painful terms, and this leads to her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis or MS--an incurable degenerative nerve disease. A course of steroids sends James into remission and back to her life, where she pretends nothing has happened. Even though the statistical odds that she will end up in a wheelchair are slim, they are enough to convince her to live life to the fullest from that point on. James moves to Alaska, a place she's always dreamed about, where she serves stints as a DJ, a waitress and a cook while running sled dogs, climbing glaciers, living in one room cabins with no electric or running water, sailing schooners, dating lots of men and hanging out in bars. But within a few years, the pattern of attacks and remissions that occur annually are not as easily assuaged by steroids and so begins a steady decline. In the end she must return to her parents' home where she reminds herself "that not a minute of my time had been wasted. " Disingenuous comments like these detract from a powerful story which tends to be more compelling than the writing.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Iuniverse Inc
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0595001157
• ISBN 13: 9780595001156
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264