A Short of History of Falling by Joe Hammond review – a book to extend empathy
over 4 years in The guardian
A father charts his decline from motor neurone disease in this witty, brave memoir written for his two young sons
Reading this book is an answer to a question you might prefer not to ask: what would it be like, as the middle-aged father of two small boys (an 18-month-old and a six-year-old), to be diagnosed with motor neurone disease? This clear-sighted memoir, with its nod in the direction of fellow sufferer Stephen Hawking’s famous book A Brief History of Time, grew out of an article Joe Hammond wrote for the Guardian in which he described writing cards to his children for future birthdays he would not live to see. No one reading that piece could fail to have been moved by his task. But if this book is written for his sons, as Hammond says it is – it could be seen as an extended version of those birthday cards – what makes it appropriate for us to be reading it? Is it not shameful to be familiarising oneself with tragedy from a comfortable distance?
What one notices throughout is the ascendancy of the writing: fit and unaffected and strong Continue reading...
Who is popular today?
