THREE QUARTERS, TWO DIMES, AND A NICKEL : A MEMOIR OF BECOMING WHOLE

Rating:
Summary: A valuable book for those injured and their families
Review: Being a spinal cord injury survivor, I found this book indispensible to my recovery and have recommended it to others who have been severely injured.

The book has been criticized for the fact it implies if you are willing to work hard enough you can walk again after a severe spinal cord injury. As has been said many times, if hard work were all it takes, many people in wheelchairs would be running the Boston Marathon. I think the readers who only see the above point of view are missing the author's message and the whole purpose of writing this book. The explanation of the title of the book within the book is the key to the entire book.

I recommend the book very highly to the recently injured and to their families.

Rating:
Summary: An inspiring, skillfully written account
Review: I read this book aboard an airplane, not knowing the first thing about it, but being intrigued by its title. It turned out to be a coming of age story like none other I have read. The author's charmed, sixties' adolescence is drastically altered by a high school wrestling accident. The prognosis regarding recovery is anything but encouraging. The events through which Fiffer is led to his rehabilitation make a riveting account. Besides his own journey, we are also treated to a poignant look at a family -- especially a father -- coming to terms with an unforseen challenge. This is all told from the unique perspective of one who finds he must adapt during a period when a society must also adapt to a dizzying array of upheavals. How Fiffer takes his first and then ultimate steps on that road is what makes such a compelling perspective. The writing is clean and skilled. At all times, I felt like I was in the hands of somebody who had an unfailing instinct for what needed to be delivered to the reader. I recommend this book for anyone who is in the mood for an intelligent, well-told story, free of cliches and without a hint of self-pity. That's probably due to the fact that by the end of it, Fiffer seems to have achieved the kind of strength and enlightenment of one who has looked tragedy in the face and told it to take a walk.

Rating:
Summary: Real life inspiration with a hilarious character
Review: I want to train with Dick Woit! What a great character. I loved this book because the author doesn't portray himself as a superhuman martyr. Publishing this straightforward autobiography must have taken at least as much courage and guts as rebuilding his body did.

Rating:
Summary: I HOPED FOR MORE
Review: This book was an impulse buy for me -- so much for trusting your instincts. Somewhere in the author's life is a good, inspirational story, I think, but it didn't seem to come out. The truth is that after awhile I really came to dislike this man -- how he treats people, how he holds petty grudges, how he uses the buddy system (from his father's business connections to NY Times columnist Ira Berkow) to win advantages in life. It was really bothersome after awhile. Typical is how he sneers about an old female friend, whom he -- oh, his mother does the speaking -- labels as a "user" and then he pouts when she can't afford to travel to his father's funeral. I wanted to slap him. He is so petty and so unforgiving of other people's human flaws at times that it overshadows his good points and what should be the heart of his story -- that he doesn't whine about his injury, that he does bust his butt to rehabilitate himself, that he does have a heroic spirit. Rather than a book about Fiffer, I came away wanting to read one about his mother, who put up with him and probably a lot else he didn't see, or Dick Woit, the trainer who helped him. They came away as people I wanted to meet, the real heroes of this story.

Rating:
Summary: Real life inspiration with a hilarious character
Review: Though this book is seemingly about recovery from a devastating accident, I was moved by the underlying themes; the dreams of children and parents, sexual maturation, the quest for a complete relationship, accountability, and the half-full vs. half-empty view of the world. The book is witty and moving. We all face barriers; the author's are just more obvious.