Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out
The author of Body, Remember: A Memoir (LJ 1/97) and winner of the Gregory Kolvolakos Award for AIDS Writing, Fries has compiled a splendid volume of nonfiction, poetry, fiction, and theater by 37 writers who live with disabilities. Their styles are as diverse as their perspectives, but the outstanding quality of the writing is consistent throughout. Several of the authors address societal misconceptions of disability, and some even struggle with their own prejudices about what it means to have a disability. Yet all distance themselves from the diametrical stereotype of the inspiring cripple who deserves accolades for accomplishing anything. Instead, the writers demonstrate their humanity, or what Fries calls "the human connection?connection with the past, connection with one another, connection with our bodies, connection with ourselves." From the incisive title to the credits and acknowledgments, Fries has produced a book of equal literary and social merit. Highly recommended for public libraries and contemporary literature collections.?Ximena Chrisagis, Fordham Health Sciences Lib., Wright State Univ., Dayton, OhioCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.