Memoir

Finished March 1
Invisible by Hugues de Montalembert
This memoir is short but gripping. The author returned home to his New York City apartment on a summer night in 1978 to find two men robbing him. They turned on him and one threw paint thinner in his face. Within a few hours, he was completely blind. As a painter and a filmmaker, vision was part of his being in a deep way.
Sharing his reactions and experiences, freeflowing at times, Hugues takes back control of his life, and regains his independence in a way others thought foolhardy. He talks about how being blind changed how others reacted to him and interacted with him. He talks about how he began a new life and about how his strong sense of vision allowed him to imagine his surroundings to such a strong degree that he sometimes confused them with real memories of seeing things.
He writes with great insight and absolutely no self-pity as he shares his new sense of himself and his life.
This book kept me reading, except when I had to break for work or driving my car for the whole day, and yet I found myself reading more slowly to savour it.