Description

Jan Grue had just become a father when he inherited a stack of his childhood medical records. Following a diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy at the age of three, the raft of doctors’ notes, clinical descriptions and case histories defined his body as defective and his future as bleak and limited. They conjured a childhood nothing like the one he remembered, that failed to anticipate the life he lived now. I Live a Life Like Yours is Grue’s beautiful, groundbreaking search for a literary language that could better tell his story.

Writing with clear-eyed wisdom and bracing frankness, Grue folds insights from art, film and literature into an expansive account of who he was expected to be, and who he became. If it is a story of frustration with negligent institutions and the pain of stigma, it is also a story of the potential of acceptance and the gift of family. Unflinching, yet always compassionate, I Live a Life Like Yours is a fierce and tender reckoning with what it means to live as a vulnerable body.

Publisher Review

'In this nuanced and beautiful book, Grue takes us on both an experiential and intellectual journey through disability. In the process he offers us doorways into reimagining a world where disability is welcomed and vulnerability supported. I Live a Life Like Yours is one of those rare books you won't be able to put down, yet will want to return to again and again to random pages for the insights and reflections they offer. A gift to read' - Sunaura Taylor, author of 'Beasts of Burden' 'All of us, whether we consider ourselves disabled or nondisabled, will understand more fully what it means to be human if we accompany Jan Grue in his rich travels from his story of limitation to his story of fulfillment' - Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, author of 'Extraordinary Bodies' 'Grue elegantly flows between memoir, essay, and intellectual discourse... He brilliantly articulates what it's like to be "erased and rewritten," and, more poignantly, what it's like to obliterate the narrative one's been handed. This stunning work isn't to be missed' - Publisher's Weekly, starred review 'An exploration of identity, of premises, boundaries and transgressions in which Grue opens up a broad horizon in language that is free and refined. The outcome is literature of relevance and greatness' - Dagsavisen 'Jan Grue begins with a first person singular and ends with a first person plural, the family he has forged with his wife and son. Throughout the reading the reader also feels a part of his we, and to be incorporated into it feels utterly splendid and enriching in every way' - Literary Critics' Prize 2018 - Judges' Comments