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From childhood, acclaimed novelist A. Manette Ansay trained to become a concert pianist. But when she was nineteen, a mysterious muscle disorder forced her to give up the piano, and by twenty-one, she couldn't grip a pen or walk across a room. She entered a world of limbo, one in which no one could explain what was happening to her or predict what the future would hold.
At twenty-three, beginning a whole new life in a motorized wheelchair, Ansay made a New Year's resolution to start writing fiction, rediscovering the sense of passion and purpose she thought she had lost for good.
Thirteen years and five books later, still without a firm diagnosis or prognosis, Ansay reflects on the ways in which the unraveling of one life can plant the seeds of another, and considers how her own physical limbo has challenged--in ways not necessarily bad--her most fundamental assumptions about life and faith.
Luminously written, Limbo is a brilliant and moving testimony to the resilience of the human spirit.
My Thoughts:
What a wonderful memoir this was. I immediately fell in love with A. Manette. I admired her strength and her wisdom. I enjoyed reading about her adolescence....her school days, friends and relationships that led her into adulthood.
I have her other books, and can't wait to read them. I think that she is a truly gifted author.
About the author: A. Manette Ansay grew up in rural Wisconsin, one of sixty-seven cousins and more than two hundred second cousins in a large extended Catholic family. At thirty-six, she is the author of four highly acclaimed novels, including Midnight Champagne, a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist; Vinegar Hill, an Oprah Book Club Selection; as well as Sister, River Angel, and a collection of short stories, Read This and Tell Me What It Says. Her awards include the Nelson Algren Prize, the Great Lakes Book Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. She is at work on another novel.
Product Details
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 17, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380732874
ISBN-13: 978-0380732876
About the author: A. Manette Ansay grew up in rural Wisconsin, one of sixty-seven cousins and more than two hundred second cousins in a large extended Catholic family. At thirty-six, she is the author of four highly acclaimed novels, including Midnight Champagne, a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist; Vinegar Hill, an Oprah Book Club Selection; as well as Sister, River Angel, and a collection of short stories, Read This and Tell Me What It Says. Her awards include the Nelson Algren Prize, the Great Lakes Book Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. She is at work on another novel.
Product Details
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 17, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380732874
ISBN-13: 978-0380732876
OUTSTANDING!
6 comments:
This book sounds so sad! I will have to look for it.
I never did tell you... I love your story book kitties on your header!
So how does she write, if she can't hold a pen? I am presuming maybe voice activated writing.
I really enjoy memoirs, and this sounds really good!
I think your sidebars are beautiful, had to comment on that.
Missy, I have an award for you.
http://teawithmarce.blogspot.com/2010/02/10-things-that-make-me-happy-happy-101.html
I have loved all her books, so I can't wait to read this. I had no idea she was struggling with this; the bleakness that sometimes appears in her stories makes a little more sense, now that I know where it might be coming from. Great review!
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