Lucky Man.

"If you were to rush in this room right now and announce that you'd struck a deal with God, Allah, Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Bill Gates, whoever - in which the ten years since my diagnosis could be magically taken away, traded in for ten more years as the person I was before, I would, without a moments hesitation, tell you to take a hike."
-- M.J.F --

Just a word tonight about one of the BEST MEMOIRS I have ever read in my life.
Lucky Man, by Michael J. Fox.
I'm still looking at the title page, the back of the dustjacket... anywhere, for the name of a co-author... but there isn't one. No, this is pure Michael J. Fox. As he says on the next-to-last page "I knew from the outset that I would have to write this book myself. The story was too personal for it to be told in anyone's words but my own."
It's just amazing that someone so skilled as an actor should be equally skilled as an author. His memoir is so well-written.
I got it as a Christmas gift, and spent my holidays devouring it, in between eating my own body weight in turkey and mashed potatoes. There are still gravy stains on the book.
Trust me, once you start reading the story, it's really difficult to put it aside.
Fox does not opt for a straight-ahead chronological approach to his story. It moves from present to future, back to the past, back to the present, back to the future! [Maybe it was even written in a DeLorean!]
He begins by detailing his earliest experiences with Young-Onset Parkinsons Disease in 1990, then jumps back in time to his formative years growing up in various parts of Canada (1960's-70's)... then follows up with his meteoric (albeit arduous) rise to fame in Hollywood in the early 80's and beyond. It's this latter three-quarters of the book that is filled with flashbacks, relevant happenings, here's and there's, like puzzle pieces selected not neccessarily in chronological order, but definitely neccessary for a complete picture in the end.
The reader is never lost in this real-life maze, and Fox's skill as a writer can hardly be exaggerated. Some of the most moving sections are those which deal with his marriage to actress Tracy Pollan, to his battles with alcohol indulgence, his brain surgery in 1998, to his love for family (his real-life Family Ties)! Of course, Michael's behind-the-scenes (and in-front-of-the-scenes) struggle with Parkinson's is front and center as the main motivation for this memoir. [Incidentally, all author's profits from the book are being donated to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research].
He is a man extremely dedicated to doing all that he can to help researchers put an end to the ravages of this disease. http://www.michaeljfox.org/
The book is sobering, it is deadly serious, and yet it is every bit as witty as Fox's television and movie persona.
In the last chapter, he says "Illness is a scary business, and somewhere deep inside, or maybe not so deep inside, we're all wondering if it could happen to us, and how we would cope if it did."
This book is about how Michael J. Fox copes. Gut level, it's all played out curtains and cameras aside!
If you expect a depressing, downtrodden story, you will be disappointed. This is not the story of an unfortunate man.
It's the story of a lucky man.

"I'm writing this book because when I told people I had Parkinson's the response overwhelmed and amazed me, both the warmth and the love that people showed me and the inspiration they seemed to draw from it giving them the courage to face some of their own situations. I was at quite a loss as to how to explain that. I saw a development from a person who was very driven and very ambitious and very consumed by outside things to somebody who had to deal with very, very, very inside things and it made me a better person."
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