The Best Seat in the House: How I Woke Up One Tuesday and Was Paralyzed for Life

The Best Seat in the House

How I Woke Up One Tuesday and Was Paralyzed for Life

By Allen Rucker
(HarperCollins, Hardcover, 9780060825287, 256pp.)

Publication Date: December 19, 2006

Other Editions of This Title: Paperback (December 19, 2007)

Categories: Personal Memoirs, Specific Groups - Special Needs

Description

Like the day Elvis died or O.J. was acquitted, the Tuesday you wake up paralyzed is not a day you soon forget. For writer Allen Rucker--baby boomer, husband, father of two, aging Hollywood also-ran--life started over that Tuesday when, at the age of fifty-one, he was struck by a rare disorder--transverse myelitis--that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Why him? Was he being punished? Was it his stressful life? His frustrating career? Telling too many Christopher Reeve jokes? Dazed and paralyzed, he was forced to reevaluate everything, from the simplest bodily functions to the mysteries of the universe.

In a style that is at once funny and moving, "The Best Seat in the House" offers an unpretentious and unapologetic account of learning to live with paralysis. Without trivializing his situation, and without sermons or cliches, Rucker invites all readers, whether disabled or not, to identify with him for better or for worse. This remarkably comic and heartfelt book speaks to the fragility of life and to the resilience and adaptability of a single, ordinary human being. Lucky for us, this human being has a sense of humor.

At first, it may not look like the best seat in the house, but read on. You might be surprised.

Praise For The Best Seat in the House…

"Very moving, not scary. [Rucker] is a talented man."
-David Chase, writer of "The Sopranos"

"Much funnier and more uplifting than it might initially seem."
-Defamer.com

"Both funny and moving...an unpretentious an unapologetic account of learning to live with paralysis."
-Welland Tribune (Ontario)

"hardly sentimental...[a] savvy contribution...ahead of the curve."
-New York Times

"Rucker's established penchant for jaded humor, along with his willingness to indulge the reader's curiosity, makes The Best Seat in the House...one of the most engaging disability memoirs to date....should be required reading for the disabled and able-bodied alike."
-New Mobility

"Allen Rucker describes his new life with honesty, accessibility, and impudence...very funny."
-National Public Radio

"This valuable book is full of surprises....Frankly written, the human struggle is most touching."
-Sante Fe New Mexican

". [Rucker] examines his situation with humor and honesty."
-PN: Paraplegia News

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