Planet of the Blind
by Stephen Kuusisto
Our Price: $0.01
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Stephen KuusistoEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-03-18
ISBN: 0571196969
Number of pages: 200
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Book Reviews of Planet of the Blind
Book Review: Striking prose
Summary: 5 Stars
When I picked up this book, I was expecting an autobiography, a memoir of a blind person. I've always wondered how a blind person "sees" the world, so I was curious to read the book. What I got was something much more than a non-fictional account. The prose is absolutely striking, poetic, full of rich vivid metaphors. It inspired tears, and laughter, and rage, and awe in me at different points in the book.
This book is more than a non-fictional autobiography. It's a work of high literature. You will be enriched after having read it.
Summary of Planet of the Blind
Stephen Kuusisto, an American, has been almost completely blind since a post-natal operation severely damaged his retinas. In this autobiography he tells of the years of lonely childhood spent behind bottle-lens glasses, the struggle through high school and college, and first love and sex. Derided by classmates, his parents pretending that nothing was wrong, he stumbled through life enraged and mortified. Only when a five-year-old labrador entered his life did he begin to trust, and learn to "walk upright"."In the country of the blind," the old adage asserts, "the one-eyed man is king." But in Stephen Kuusisto's superb new memoir, The Planet of the Blind, the world of a one-eyed man is a kingdom of confusion and quixotic struggle. Born with only residual vision, one eye capable of 20/200 vision and the other unseeing, Kuusisto was led by the insistence of his mother and the ignorance of the society around him to an elaborate and harrowing attempt to appear sighted. At times the effort was life-threatening, as with the bicycle he rode from the ages of 10 to 30 ("Were my years of cycling an actuarial gift?" he wonders), and at other times profoundly humiliating, as when his stumblings and collisions are assumed to be signs of habitual drunkenness. Indeed, the almost inconceivable effort of maintaining his sighted masquerade leads to all sorts of self-destructive behavior, from obesity to anorexia, from booze and cigarettes to drugs and perilous clambers up fire escapes.
Most biography is a recounting of struggle that leads to success and achievement, but Kuusisto's story is of a lifelong struggle that leads to acceptance. For this gifted poet, the barely glimpsed visual world is an irresistible temptation, despite pain, embarrassment, and failure. When he finally submits to the white cane and a guide dog, suddenly he can envision a "Planet of the Blind," a place where those without sight live in peace with their own lives, where "everyone is free to touch faces, paintings, gardens," a place where beauty is behind the eye of the beholder. --John Longenbaugh
Biographies & Memoirs Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Biographies & Memoirs Books
I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Storyby Hank Aaron, Lonnie Wheeler
Harpercollins; Published: 1991-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.39
Price in other shops:
Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Againby Drew Pinsky
William Morrow; Published: 2003-08-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.53
Price in other shops:
The Last Season (P.S.)by Eric Blehm
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.54
Price in other shops:
The Last Seasonby Eric Blehm
Harper; Published: 2006-04-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.97
Price in other shops:
Truck: A Love Story (P.S.)by Michael Perry
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-07-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.06
Price in other shops:
My Grandfather's Son: A Memoirby Clarence Thomas
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritansby Eve LaPlante
HarperOne; Published: 2004-03-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.59
Price in other shops:
100 Missions North/ a Fighter Pilot's Story of the Vietnam Warby Kenneth H. Bell
Brassey's Inc; Published: 1993-04; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Macmillan Profiles: Villains & Outlawsby Et Al
MacMillan Reference Books; Published: 1998-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.93
Price in other shops:
Hawk : Occupation Skateboarderby Tony; Mortimer, Sean Hawk
Regan Books; Published: 2000; Hardcover; Book
Similar Books and other products
Why Fly That Way?: Linking Community and Academic Achievementby Katherine Greeley
Teachers College Press; Published: 2001-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.00
Price in other shops:
You Can't Say You Can't Playby Vivian Gussin Paley
Free Spirit Publishing; Harvard University Press; Published: 1993-07-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.00
Price in other shops:
The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroomby Lisa Delpit
New Press, The; Published: 2008-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.04
Price in other shops:
Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listeningby Stephen Kuusisto
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2006-09-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.05
Price in other shops:
The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnantby Dan Savage
Plume; Published: 2000-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.47
Price in other shops:
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritanceby Barack Obama
Broadway; Published: 2004-08-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity (Cultural Front)by Simi Linton
NYU Press; Published: 1998-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.37
Price in other shops:
Autobiography of a Faceby Lucy Grealy
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-03-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.48
Price in other shops:
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Deathby Jean-Dominique Bauby
Vintage; Published: 1998-06-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.55
Price in other shops:
Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindnessby John M. Hull
Vintage; Published: 1992-06-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.62
Price in other shops: