Waist-High in the World A Life Among the Nondisabled [Paperback]

In a blend of intimate memoir and passionate advocacy, Nancy Mairs takes on the subject woven through all her writing: disability and its effect on life, work, and spirit.Graceful yet gritty paradoxes drive this extraordinary book, which uses the author's degenerative disease, multiple sclerosis, as a window into a very particular soul. . . . Let the reader understand: this is not a book about MS, or about illness; rather, it's a chronicle of inspired adaptation, spiritual as well as physical, to limits. The aim is the creation of joy. -Sallie Bingham,The New Mexican

Woe is not her, as she makes clear throughout this absorbing, laceratingly honest book. . . . This social construction of disability . . . is what Mairs most wants us to 'get' in this passionate, penetrating book-and then get over. -Marian Sandmeier,The Washington Post Book World

Vintage Mairs: sharply observed, deeply personal and always direct. -Michael Haederle,Los Angeles Times

As helpful as Mairs's book will be to disabled people, what's most important about it is its lessons for able-bodied readers. -Kathi Wolfe,The Progressive

Rich, startling and utterly absorbing. -Kirkus Reviews,starred review

Mairs's physical view of the world may be waist-high, but her intellectual and spiritual range is limitless. -Donna Seaman,Booklist,starred review

'One sharp instrument is left me: my tongue.' This [Mairs] wields like a finely crafted baton, leading her readers to an ever deeper understanding of the human condition. -Yvonne Duffy,Detroit Free Press

Nancy Mairs is author of several acclaimed books, including Ordinary Time, Carnal Acts, Remembering the Bone House, and Plaintext. Visit Nancy Mairs' website: www.nancymairs.com.

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