Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

An excellent book everyone should read. Can't recommend it too strongly. Best Seat is an unflinching and honest examination of a personal tragedy turned into a blessing, written by a hall of fame comic writer. Fantastic book.

While it's not a topic many of us wish to think about -- the potential of waking up someday with some life-altering condition that will literally force us to rethink everything about our lives and how to go about it -- this book is an incredibly worthwhile read.

As another reviewer noted, it's a great book to buy for anyone that could benefit from a little understanding of the disabled point of view. What struck me most about this book (other than the fact that I read it in two days, which is fast for me as a WAHM) was that Rucker is so open about the feelings he experienced -- and without coming across as feeling sorry for himself. Quite the contrary -- Rucker kind of seems to have used his condition as a kick in the pants for his life overall. So a pivotal event that for most others would be devastating is, for him, enlightening.

I found this book to be incredibly inspirational overall -- and I think it will find an audience with anyone who has ever wondered about the disabled person's experience.

I'll be buying this book for others for a long time to come, I think. A great, great story.

A friend of mine told me about "Best Seat In The House", and said it was really, really funny. I said, "Okay, a guy wakes up one morning and he's paralyzed. How funny can that be?" Well it is funny, hilarious in places. But it's also poignant and sensible and thought-provoking and incredibly readable. I later learned that Allen Rucker was the guy who wrote "White People In America" along with Martin Mull. That was maybe the first mock documentary I ever saw, and is still the funniest. Rucker has a great take on life, and it's been fine-tuned by this paralysis in a way that's turned him into a wise philosopher with a lousy spine but a heckuva funnybone.

A friend got this for me the day it came out. Allen Rucker provides both a humorous and touching account of his journey in progress, and doesn't leave much out...from his brutal honesty about his career path as a Hollywood writer, to his introduction and dealings with transverse myelitis. I enjoyed this book and recommend it to others.

First off I would like to thank the author for introducing me to a new non-PC term for a group of Americans. Not that I am going to go around calling everyone in a walker a "crip" now, but it's always nice to get a chance to explore the topics. Allen brings you into a world that it would be too awkward to ask about, like rap music does for middle class white kids.

The real meat of the book though is the way Allen honestly explores dealing with catastrophe and even manages to slip in a bit of good advice that manages to never come across in a Tony Robbins-esque way. I found it very inspiring, and I don't inspire easy.

Its humor and honesty make this book a really enjoyable read. After you read it you'll never park in a handy capped space again. (Or maybe you'll start parking in them all the time. Who knows?)

Having just recently been told I will have to be in a wheelchair to save what is left of my legs due to polio, I was really interested in what this book had to say. I had read a review in the New Mobility magazine and it got my curiosity aroused. I ended up getting it from our local library and read it in almost one sitting! It seemed to strike a "nerve" with me - I just turned 53, having had a very busy and enjoyable life - built my own house, was a scuba diver, kayaker, bicyclist, raised two active boys, etc - then, as polio caught up to me, I am finding that I need to use more and more "help" to just get through the day. That was a very disturbing and somewhat depressing thought, to me. But, if I was going to make what I had left last for many more years, I knew I had to do it. So, I am moving into a wheelchair, using hand controls on my van, using a crutch all the time, etc. It was a bummer, in my mind. Then, along comes Allen's book and my mind was turned upside down! I found a kindred spirit in Allen, and just loved his sense of humor, his somewhat acerbic wit, and his learning to look beyond the terrible things that his body had done to him and focus on the positive things. Yes, it is not always positive, and he made that very clear, but there are ways to look at just about everything that make it easier or funnier or reflective. I found myself cheering for him when he made those "steps" of discovery - dealing with his work, his house, his wife, his mother-in-law (I was crying laughing!), his kids, his bitterness, his anger. I bought this book because I know that I will read it again and I have recommended it to many of my walking friends, as well - we all have disabilities, in one way or another, and learning to live with them is a great lesson. Allen Rucker has done that and has described a way that worked for him and will work for many others -

KUDOS TO AUTHOR ALLEN RUCKER FOR AN INSIGHTFUL, HONEST, SELF REVEALING, NO-HOLDS-BARRED, AND AT TIMES HUMOROUS BOOK ABOUT "MAN AND HIS WHEELCHAIR,A SPECIAL CLUB!!!. I AM A DISABLED RETIRED TROOPER SHOT ON DUTY-1973-NECK AREA--WAS PARALYZED FOR MONTHS FROM THE NECK DOWN REQUIRING THE USE OF A WHEELCHAIR TO GET AROUND. AFTER MONTHS OF REHAB I WAS THEN AND NOW 34 YEARS LATER ABLE TO AMBULATE WITH THE SUPPORT OF A CANE AND A LOWER LEG BRACE. I STILL REQUIRE A CHARIOT FOR LONG DISTANCES. AS I READ THRU MR RUCKER'S BOOK I SAID--"HEY I HAD THE VERY SAME EXACT FEELINGS-THOUGHTS-INTERACTION WITH OTHERS AND EXPERIENCES!! IT WAS IN CREDIBLE. I NEVER FELT THAT THE AUTHOR WAS WHINING--HE WAS TELLING IT LIKE IT IS!!!I HAVE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THIS BOOK TO MY ABLE BODIED AND SPINAL CORD INJURED FRIENDS. IT IS A SMOOTH,EASY,RELAXING ENJOYABLE READ. I WOULD URGE REVIEWER BEVERLY TIMMER TO FINISH READING THE BOOK BEFORE SHE MAKES FINAL JUDGEMENT. WOULD SHE EAT AN ICE CREAM SUNDAY AND NOT EAT THE CHERRY?? THE LAST CHAPTER OF THIS WONDERFUL BOOK,"LIFE AFTER PARALYSIS" IS THAT CHERRY---TAKE A BITE.

Here's a book you find every once-in-a-while; I couldn't put it down until I finished it. Allen Rucker takes you through his life-transforming paralysis with humor, wit and grace that defies the odds. This book left me with a fresh understanding of what's really important in life. No preaching here - a great down-home narrative.

Allen Rucker's book is an entertaining read, a poignant portrait of a man who learns life's most important and hard-to-face lessons in a brand-new body in his 50s, and a spot-on social commentary about the way people with disabilities are treated in this culture. The most compelling and memorable aspect of this book is the way it reveals, through wit, at times scathing sarcasm, clear observation, and a healthy dose of compassion, the way a man navigates a new life in a new body. At turns poignant, revealing, terrifying, and hysterically funny, the book has no false notes and reminds disabled and non-disabled readers alike that we are given one body and we don't know what its future in this world will be, despite our most carefully crafted plans. The scenes and insights in this book will resonate when you read them and stay with you long after you've finished the book. Bravo!

This book doesn't belong with all the somber "coping with illness" type of books. Allen Rucker's experience of the indignity and struggle of working in Hollywood alone is worth reading. After you commiserate with the dilemma that befalls Allen, and recognize how easily it could happen to any of us, anytime - we could take a nap one Tuesday and "wake up paralyzed for life" - the part that sticks with you is gratitude for the profound wake-up call you have received. It was hard to run after reading this book without thinking of Allen. Anyone who doesn't fully appreciate their body, or sees only the imperfections, will find that invaluable.

After the book came out, Allen Rucker spoke at a Writers Guild press conference on diversity, responding to a UCLA study showing the low employment of minorities in film and TV. He reminded them that the disabled are by far the largest minority in America - 56 million - yet are invisible both on TV and in the report. Allen's book is paving the way for those over 50 who are feeling increasingly invisible and are waking up to the fact that unexpected things will happen to our bodies as we age, not many of them good, and provides an inspired blueprint for dealing with it.