Rather than being a strictly chronological account, much of the book focuses on the varied emotions and experiences, such as loneliness, that accompany such a transformation in life. The author refers to The Body in Pain by Elaine Scarry (see this database) as helpful in explaining the interiority of pain and the difficulty in communicating what one feels within one’s body to another person.

In many places the book is a cry of anguish and despair. The effect of the injury on her family is particularly poignant. Here is a mother who loves her child completely and profoundly, yet cannot provide the simplest physical acts for her, nor protect her should a catastrophe occur (she details an episode in a pool where she cannot move quickly to rescue her daughter--fortunately another parent helps immediately). Her relationship with her husband seems more complicated and is not always rosy.

Reynolds Price’s autobiographical account of his struggle with spinal cancer and paralysis (A Whole New Life, annotated in this database) offers many parallels and contrasts with this book. For example, the lines between prose and poetry are blurred in Berger’s book--much of her writing is lyrical--whereas the poetry that Price includes in his book is distinct from the rest of the writing. The focus of the two books is different as well: for instance, Price includes issues of mortality and the effects of his powerful spiritual vision.