Twilight: Losing Sight, Gaining Insight

Rating:
Summary: It is available on AUDIO
Review: Age Related Macular Degeneration is incurable and is the leading cause of sight loss and blindness among men over the age of sixty. Henry Grunwald is the former editor-in-chief of all Time, Inc., publications and under President Reagan US Ambassador to his native Austria. You may recall that he wrote a piece on his loss of vision in The New Yorker in 1996. This is an excellent book for those of you who have friends or relatives (or yourselves) who must learn to accept vision loss. Grunwald, whose life is lived through words and art, recounts his angry fight against and then acceptance of his condition, a fight filled with frustrations, depressions. He learns that "IT COULD BE WORSE". I called KNOPF, the publisher. They have no plans to issue an AUDIO version, but they have made an AUDIO VERSION available to THE LIGHTHOUSE for the Blind in Manhattan. COntact the store at LIGHTHOUSE.ORG

Rating:
Summary: Learning from Within
Review: As a new person to the field of age-related vision loss, I picked up Grunwald's book and instantly felt a genuine person telling me his story and explaining his perspectives. His book is not compartamentalized in medical, emotional and social sections. It is a natural journey through which you begin to understand what Grunwald experienced.

As a writer myself, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to no longer pick up your own books and read them, as in Grunwald's account of his frustration or simply write and edit with ease.

His plain English explanation of his feelings, situations and medical details of his vision loss has been a gift that has helped me understand what persons with degenerative vision loss are going through. Thank you Henry for pouring yourself into a book, just to help so many others affected directly and indirectly by degenerative vision loss. Your impact lasts beyond the last words in your book.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling, visceral autobiography.
Review: Henry Gunwald's experiences with macular degeneration - a gradually loss of sight which affects the elderly - details his growing disability and his struggle to understand new, increasing limitations in his strong autobiography Twilight. From his visual awakening as a child to his revised perspective as an adult, this muses on the nature of sight and its loss.

Rating:
Summary: Value for sufferers and doctors
Review: My mother has macular degeneration and needed this book on tape. .... My mom found the book to be very helpful. I also read it to try to understand better what she deals with every day. She also purchased 2 copies of the book in hardcover for her eye specialists. Although they know all the medical information already, the book can give them insight into their patient's plight. I recommend the book to anyone who knows or works with someone with low vision.

Rating:
Summary: A Book For Those Who Love Someone Who Has M.D.
Review: Powerful and well written, this book really gives you a feel for what it must be like to live with macular degeneration and watch your world blur away. But note to publisher...PLEASE, GET THIS BOOK ON TAPE IMMEDIATELY! The whole point is to gain compassion for (and grow closer to) those living with M.D., but how can I discuss the book with my Gram unless she's heard it? Did the publisher fall asleep at the wheel on this one?

Rating:
Summary: No stars for meeting the most important "reader's" needs
Review: The book is excellent, but how can you ignore those who would gain the most from this message? The fact that you have not yet put this book into an audio format is unbelievable. I have been watching and waiting for a year in order to give it to my aunt who has MD and is a voracious audio "reader." Isn't anybody listening???

Rating:
Summary: Audiotape version
Review: This is a brilliant analysis of the deterioration of vision by Mr. Grunwald who has gone through it. He handles his unfortunate situation with grace and class.

I am very surprised that this text has not been published in audio form since there are so many individuals who cannot read because of AMD, but would gain so much from Mr. Grunwalds words.

Rating:
Summary: WHEN is this book coming out on tape or large type?
Review: This is a sensitive, inspirational book about Henry Grunwald's journey into macular degeneration. I am buying two more books for my brothers to increase their understanding of our mother's struggle with this disease. And speaking of my mother, she would love to read this book (especially the part about mistaking the Princess of Wales for Diane Sawyer)and she would be inspired by his account of "losing sight, gaining insight." Unfortunately, she can't do either because the book isn't in LARGE,BOLD. BLACK TYPE or ON TAPE. Publisher Alfred A Knopf, ARE YOU LISTENING?

Rating:
Summary: WHEN is this book coming out on tape or large type?
Review: This is a sensitive, inspirational book about Henry Grunwald's journey into macular degeneration. I am buying two more books for my brothers to increase their understanding of our mother's struggle with this disease. And speaking of my mother, she would love to read this book (especially the part about mistaking the Princess of Wales for Diane Sawyer)and she would be inspired by his account of "losing sight, gaining insight." Unfortunately, she can't do either because the book isn't in LARGE,BOLD. BLACK TYPE or ON TAPE. Publisher Alfred A Knopf, ARE YOU LISTENING?

Rating:
Summary: CALLING ALL MACULAR DEGENERATES...
Review: Written by a retired Editor-in-Chief of Time, Inc. publications, this slender tome gives the author's musings on macular degeneration, which is an incurable, age-related, gradual loss of vision that affects millions of Americans. It is a loss that the author himself experienced, though initially, having worn eyeglasses all his life, he simply thought that he needed a prescription for stronger lenses.

The author gives the reader a historical perspective of age related macular degeneration and the state of this disease in the medical world today. He also recounts his early struggle with the permanent loss of vision and his somewhat difficult transition to the world of the blind and partially blind, given the fact that his life had always revolved around the written word and voracious reading.

This is a very personal chronicle of one man's journey, both physical and emotional, to a new phase in his long and rich life. It is clearly a journey that the author would have preferred not to have taken, but having taken it, though against his will, he makes the most of it. A gifted writer, the author shares his experiences with great candor and insight.

This is an informative, inspirational work from the heart. Those who read it will gain knowledge of the insidious disease that is macular degeneration. It is certainly a disease with which all those who may potentially become afflicted should be familiar. Baby Boomers, in particular, should take heed.