How I Became a Human Being: A Disabled Man's Quest for Independence (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography) [Hardcover]

Mark O'Brien (Author), Gillian Kendall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 20, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0299184307 | ISBN-13: 978-0299184308 | Edition: 1

September 1955. Six-year-old Mark O'Brien moved his arms and legs for the last time. He came out of a thirty-day coma to find himself enclosed from the neck down in an iron lung, the machine in which he would live for much of the rest of his life.

How I Became a Human Being is Mark O'Brien's account of his struggles to lead an independent life despite a lifelong disability. In 1955, he contracted polio and became permanently paralyzed from the neck down. O'Brien describes growing up without the use of his limbs, his adolescence struggling with physical rehabilitation and suffering the bureaucracy of hospitals and institutions, and his adult life as an independent student and writer. Despite his weak physical state, O'Brien attended graduate school, explored his sexuality, fell in love, published poetry, and worked as a journalist. A determined writer, O'Brien used a mouthstick to type each word.

O'Brien's story does not beg for sympathy. It is rather a day-to-day account of his reality-the life he crafted and maintained with a good mind, hired attendants, decent legislation for disabled people in California, and support from the University of California at Berkeley. He describes the ways in which a paralyzed person takes care of the body, mind, and heart. What mattered most was his writing, the people he loved, his belief in God, and his belief in himself.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Writing this kind of memoir requires-in addition to the sheer stamina and grit it must have cost Mark O'Brien with his great physical debility-a truly tempered personality and, dare I say it, greatness of character. . . . O'Brien conveys his pain, his suffering, his depression, his anomie-without resorting to tugging at our heartstrings."-Felice Picano, author of Like People in History and The Lure and Onyx

About the Author

Mark O'Brien was the subject of the 1997 Academy Award-winning documentary Breathing Lessons. He was a published poet and cofounder of the Lemonade Factory, a California press that published poetry by people with disabilities. O'Brien died in 1999 at the age of forty-nine after completing a draft of How I Became a Human Being. Gillian Kendall is a writer. She has contributed to both Outright Radio and Sun Magazine; one of her short stories appeared in The Student Body, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (March 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299184307
• ISBN-13: 978-0299184308
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #494,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disabled poet does not beg for sympathy, April 25, 2003

By 

Lucille (Madison, WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How I Became a Human Being: A Disabled Man's Quest for Independence (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography) (Hardcover)

September 1955. Six-year-old Mark O'Brien moved his arms and legs for the last time. He came out of a thirty-day coma to find himself enclosed from the neck down in an iron lung, the machine in which he would live for much of the rest of his life.

How I Became a Human Being is Mark O'Brien's account of his struggles to lead an independent life despite a lifelong disability. In 1955, he contracted polio and became permanently paralyzed from the neck down. O'Brien describes growing up without the use of his limbs, his adolescence struggling with physical rehabilitation and suffering the bureaucracy of hospitals and institutions, and his adult life as an independent student and writer. Despite his weak physical state, O'Brien attended graduate school, explored his sexuality, fell in love, published poetry, and worked as a journalist. A determined writer, O'Brien used a mouthstick to type each word.

O'Brien's story does not beg for sympathy. It is rather a day-to-day account of his reality?the life he crafted and maintained with a good mind, hired attendants, decent legislation for disabled people in California, and support from the University of California at Berkeley. He describes the ways in which a paralyzed person takes care of the body, mind, and heart. What mattered most was his writing, the people he loved, his belief in God, and his belief in himself.

Mark O'Brien was the subject of the 1997 Academy Award?winning documentary Breathing Lessons. He was a published poet and cofounder of the Lemonade Factory, a California press that published poetry by people with disabilities. O'Brien died in 1999 at the age of forty-nine after completing a draft of How I Became a Human Being . Gillian Kendall is a writer. She has contributed to both Outright Radio and Sun magazine; one of her short stories appeared in The Student Body, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a great read, May 21, 2003

By 

DeAnza (Santa Cruz, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How I Became a Human Being: A Disabled Man's Quest for Independence (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography) (Hardcover)

"How I became a human being" is a great read. It is one of those books that I had trouble putting down, once I had begun reading it. Mark O'Brien is a truely inspirational person, who proves that if you set your mind to something, you can achieve whatever you want to in life despite, in his case, extraordinary obstacles. I simply can't imagine being paralysed from the neck down. What amazed me while reading the book, was that at times, I forgot that Mark had such a profound disabilty, with his humour, personality and love coming through in his writing.
My only criticism of this book is that there was no mention at any point of Mark's realization that he would never walk again, that he would forever be reliant on others and indeed be reliant on an iron lung. When was he first told he would never walk again? How did he and his parents react to this news? Did he live in hope that by some miracle, he would walk again or did he accept that this was the way he was going to be for the rest of his life? After finishing the book, I felt that these questions were left largely unanswered.
Also, as Mark O'Brien died in 1999, I felt that it would have been good for the co-writer to have written an epilogue regarding the circumstances of his death. Throughout the book Mark comes close to death on several occasions and he talks about death in quite some detail, but the reader is left with no details of the actual circumstances in which he died.
Despite these criticisms, I recommend this book highly. It is an amazingly inspirational read.