Look Up for Yes [Hardcover]

Julia Tavalaro (Author), Richard Tayson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1997

Thirty years ago, in the dead of winter, a beautiful young woman woke from a seven-month coma in a lonely hospital ward. But when she opened her eyes, no one noticed. Her entire body paralyzed by stroke, she tried to speak and no one heard. Thus her nightmare began. Gradually, Julia Tavalaro realized that not one of her doctors or caretakers was prepared to consider the possibility that the vital mind of a thirty-two-year-old woman existed inside the tiny, twisted body before them. Warehoused in a public hospital with other "incurables", she was known to all as "the vegetable". While she lay there, the Vietnam War raged and waned, a man walked on the moon, and an actor she knew from B-movies was elected president. In this vivid and moving memoir, Julia recounts her years in the prison of her body - the physical and emotional suffering and the realization that she had been abandoned by her family. Nearly broken by recurring bouts of pneumonia and fevers, and by the cruel and often abusive nurses who hated assuming responsibility for her life, Julia began to fight back. She unleashed a powerful rage, a biting, moaning, spitting offensive against those who expected little more from her than the sound of her breathing. Finally, in 1973, a young speech therapist named Arlene Kraat suspected Julia could comprehend what was happening around her. By asking her one simple question and telling her to respond with her eyes, she finally broke through Julia's isolation. With Arlene pointing to each letter on a letter board, Julia began to use her eyes to spell out her thoughts and relate the turmoil of her terrible years in captivity. Eventually, she began to compose poems that drew on the memories of her life before the stroke, reviving the aggressively sexual, daredevil life she had once lived and re-establishing her own sanity.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When Julia Tavalaro opened her eyes after spending seven months in a coma, she awoke to a nightmare. Nobody in the hospital ward to which she had been consigned even noticed that she was alert. Paralyzed and unable to speak, Tavalaro had no way of making them take notice. She spent the next six years languishing in her bed, and although able to hear everything around her, she was unable to communicate.

Finally, a young speech therapist broke through Tavalaro's isolation by composing a method by which Tavalaro could spell out words with her eyes. After mastering the technique, Tavalaro went on to write poetry about her life both before and after the stroke that crippled her. Tavlaro is able to recall her past in minute detail and weaves her memoir from threads of the past, her present, and her poems that transcend the two. Look Up for Yes is the courageous story of a woman struggling to find her voice and make it heard.

From Booklist

A true story of unbelievable courage and persistence, Look Up for Yes charts Tavalaro's journey since she woke from a coma (the aftermath of two strokes), paralyzed from the neck down. Declared a "vegetable" by unfeeling nurses and insensitive attendants, she remained cognizant of her surroundings through six years of frustration, humiliation, and rage, until in 1973 a speech therapist realized her ability to comprehend, which marked a new beginning for Tavalaro. Her communication started with looking up to mean "yes" and straight ahead to mean "no," progressed to using a pointer and letter board to spell words letter by letter, and now involves a computer. She drives an electric wheelchair with a switch she presses with her chin, and she plans to move from her hospital setting to independent living in quarters specially designed for the disabled. Whitney Scott

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha America; First Printing edition (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568361718
• ISBN-13: 978-1568361710
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,106,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Look up, and up, and up, and up!, April 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Look Up for Yes (Hardcover)

Those who weap because they have no shoes should meet this woman who has no feet, no hands, no voice, no normalcy. And yet she greets the day with poetry and refuses -- against odds few people could bear -- to loosen her grip on reality, on the future, on hope. Where some autobiographical writers might seek our pity, Julia demands our respect. Where some labor to generate tears, Julia aims to generate cheers -- and at times outbursts of profanity. Her story is a fast, easy-to-follow read packed with flashbacks, present-day tales and, the most essential element of all, hope

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anyone going into healthcare should read this book!, September 15, 2008

By 

A. Hanson "Avacado" (Montana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Look Up for Yes (Hardcover)

This book was recommended to my by the teacher of my CNA class in Fort Collins, CO. It was a very moving book... After being a CNA for 6 years now, I was finally able to read it. It refreshed my purpose and drive for going to nursing school. This woman truely has drive!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Make it mandatory reading for anyone in the medical field!, December 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Look up for Yes (Paperback)

A nurse recommended the book to my sister. She said it changed the way she treats patients. My sister read it in one afternoon. It makes you think and reminds you to count your blessings!