Planet of the Blind: A Memoir

Stephen Kuusisto's extraordinary memoir is both a literary tour de force and a journey through the shadowy existence of the legally blind. Brought up to disavow his blindness, Kuusisto spent much of his life trying to pass as a sighted man, traveling everywhere as an adult at dizzying speeds without a cane. As a child with bottle-lens glasses, he was ridiculed by his classmates; as an adolescent he struggled first with obesity, then anorexia; as a young adult, in love with reading, he suffered the derision of teachers who felt he could not possibly keep up with his studies. Fueled by his passion for the written word, Kuusisto nonetheless persisted, successfully, in conquering academia - until a devastating accident forced him to acquire the white cane at last. Then, shortly thereafter, came a yellow labrador retriever named Corky who became Kuusisto's guiding eyes - and changed his life forever. This is the record of a handicapped life, but it is also an extraordinary literary achievement. Kuusisto has succeeded in translating his opaque, kaleidoscopic world of shape and color into poetic and luminous prose.