A journalist for National Public Radio and ABC News recounts the challenges he has faced as a paraplegic at home and abroad, from the dangers of war-torn Iraq and Jerusalem to discrimination at home. Reprint.
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Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
ABC correspondent Hockenberry, who was left a paraplegic after a 1976 car accident, writes of living life from a wheelchair.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The former National Public Radio correspondent, currently seen on ABC's Day One, explains what it's like to report from such embattled outposts as Jerusalem, Baghdad, and New York City in a wheelchair.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By Craig_C
Format:Paperback
Upon my discharge from rehab after becoming a paraplegic myself, there was a long list of recommended books and a stack of books that had been given to me by well intending friends and family. These books were sterile and had been written by walking people. This book is a fantastic departure from the clinical spinal cord injury books. This book helped prepare me in a very different way than the help I received from family, friends, doctors or therapists for some of the wide variety of challenges I now face in daily living. This book is simply a must read for new paraplegics and their families.
Honestly, I would prioritize this over the books from Christopher Reeve.
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I want to keep my review short because, if you have not read this book, reading my review will take up some of the time in which you could be reading the real book. When "Moving Violations" was first published, I heard a review of it on NPR. John Hockenberry is an NPR alum so I expected the book to be almost as good as the review led me to believe. I ordered it from Amazon and devoured it in almost no time. It was actually better than the radio review had led me to expect. A month later, I got a call from Seattle that delivered horrific news. My 21-year-old son had been in a contest with gravity and gravity had won. Although he had just had 18 hours of surgery, there was no way to know if he would ever walk again. Through the years since that time, I have read "Moving Violations" many times. It initially gave me entrance to a new world and was much more helpful to both my son and I than all the rehab publications combined. I knew, from the moment I answered that phone call that both my son and I had crossed into the Twilight Zone and nothing would ever be the same again. The Twilight Zone, however, had at least one map. My son's journey was, and continues to be, unique (as all such journeys are). I did feel, from the very beginning, that we had a preview of some of the directional signposts and even some of the scenic overlooks. I cannot help but think that our family has been living and learning about this new life in a richer way than would never have been possible if we had not read this book. As soon as my son came home from rehab it became clear that he had lost his will to live. I had a captive audience and started reading "M V" aloud. It is well written and mirrors many of the dilemmas in the life of a young male with spinal cord damage. I think it only took two days for my son to get interested enough that he started reading it himself. This book was truly one of the first things that helped him recover his will to live. Living with a catastrophic spinal cord injury is not even at the bottom of the list of interesting travel sites, and while I cannot believe that anyone would take that path voluntarily, "M V" is proof that, along with the horror, there can be adventure and possibilities in life; possibilities that could be so easily missed. So...READ IT! While spinal cord injury may never be a part of your personal life, sooner or later something awful could be. As the Eagles remind us, "The wolf is always at the door." In whatever guise the wolf presents itself, you will have learned something useful about what to do when or if the wolf appears.
29 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book contains the memoirs of John Hockenberry, a well-known journalist who is disabled. Hockenberry takes us through a blow-by-blow account of the accident which left him paralyzed from the chest down. He explains the nature and extent of his injuries and describes his experiences in the rehab hospital where he learned how to manage the needs of daily life from his wheelchair. He then takes us through the details of his young adult years, his education, marriage, and career. The only aspect of the book that I did not like was that Hockenberry occasionally gets a little heavy-handed with philosophizing. The extensive self-analysis, however is understandable, since this is very much a book about coming to terms with his life-to-date and his culture.
It was the 1980 eruptions at Mt. St. Helens that got Hockenberry his big break with NPR. Hockenberry was covering the reports for a local radio station in Eugene, Oregon, where he was living at the time, and his reports drew the attention of the national NPR news editors. They never suspected that their intrepid Oregonian journalist was in a wheelchair until the day he was not able to phone in a report before the deadline because he couldn't locate an accessible phone. NPR found that Hockenberry was quite talented at finding, writing, and reading news stories, and brought him to their headquarters in D.C. Later, Hockenberry was chosen to be the Middle East correspondent for NPR, stationed in Jerusalem. It was there, far from home and the Americans with Disabilities Act legislation, where Hockenberry faced tremendous challenges that taught him much about the human family.
Although I had listened to countless news reports from Hockenberry on NPR, I never knew about his disability until I heard him giving an interview on NPR about this book. The thought of someone who is paralyzed from the chest down voluntarily navigating through a war zone, managing to transport himself through terrain where wheels can't go, is simply mind-boggling. Hockenberry doesn't tell these stories to boast about his strengths- -instead, his goal is to explain how he is an ordinary person with his own foibles and problems. But his problems aren't insurmountable, thanks to his creativity and determination, and to the willingness of others to meet him partway at times with compassion or a shift in habits or expectations. He's not asking to pull less weight than others because of his disability, but only to be allowed to pull the weight in the ways that he is able, without barriers placed in his way.
Working in Jerusalem gave Hockenberry a unique vantage point for observing the US and its relation to handicapped people. He writes "It is very American to make these ironclad distinctions between the individual merit of a person and opportunities for advancement that have to do with family connections, wealth, wheelchairs, race, and other intangibles...In America the primary virtue is in doing something `despite the wheelchair,' or `even though you are black or a woman.' Succeed by incorporating what makes you different into your goal and you are perceived as having cheated." Later he notes "In America access is always about architecture and never about human beings. Among Israelis and Palestinians, access was rarely about anything but people. While in the U.S. a wheelchair stands out as an explicitly separate experience from the mainstream, in the Israel and Arab worlds it is just another thing that can go wrong in a place where things go wrong all the time." Hockenberry notes how far people in Jerusalem were willing to go out of their way to help him when the terrain was inaccessible, and contrasts that with his experience trying to use the New York subway, where most people refused to even look at him, let alone offer to assist him in stations without elevators.
Having lived in the Middle East myself for five years, I think Hockenberry was probably right about Israelis and Palestinians more readily acknowledging the humanity of situations involving access for wheelchairs. But I'm not sure that non-disabled Americans are intentionally uncompassionate. As Americans, we are taught that disabled people wish to be independent and don't want any attention drawn to their special circumstances, and they don't want us to push their chairs or grab their white canes. We assume that because there is a law guaranteeing access for all, that access exists and is sufficient and already present in the buildings where it is required. Once the law has been put in place, we assume any needs have already been met. Most of us are unfamiliar with the needs of disabled people- -we don't know how to act around disabled people, what we should do, and what we shouldn't, so perhaps that's why we try not to see the disabled. In that respect, this book fills a dire need: it brings us into the day-to-day life of a remarkable yet ordinary disabled person, introducing us to his life story, dreams, and desires.
It was the 1980 eruptions at Mt. St. Helens that got Hockenberry his big break with NPR. Hockenberry was covering the reports for a local radio station in Eugene, Oregon, where he was living at the time, and his reports drew the attention of the national NPR news editors. They never suspected that their intrepid Oregonian journalist was in a wheelchair until the day he was not able to phone in a report before the deadline because he couldn't locate an accessible phone. NPR found that Hockenberry was quite talented at finding, writing, and reading news stories, and brought him to their headquarters in D.C. Later, Hockenberry was chosen to be the Middle East correspondent for NPR, stationed in Jerusalem. It was there, far from home and the Americans with Disabilities Act legislation, where Hockenberry faced tremendous challenges that taught him much about the human family.
Although I had listened to countless news reports from Hockenberry on NPR, I never knew about his disability until I heard him giving an interview on NPR about this book. The thought of someone who is paralyzed from the chest down voluntarily navigating through a war zone, managing to transport himself through terrain where wheels can't go, is simply mind-boggling. Hockenberry doesn't tell these stories to boast about his strengths- -instead, his goal is to explain how he is an ordinary person with his own foibles and problems. But his problems aren't insurmountable, thanks to his creativity and determination, and to the willingness of others to meet him partway at times with compassion or a shift in habits or expectations. He's not asking to pull less weight than others because of his disability, but only to be allowed to pull the weight in the ways that he is able, without barriers placed in his way.
Working in Jerusalem gave Hockenberry a unique vantage point for observing the US and its relation to handicapped people. He writes "It is very American to make these ironclad distinctions between the individual merit of a person and opportunities for advancement that have to do with family connections, wealth, wheelchairs, race, and other intangibles...In America the primary virtue is in doing something `despite the wheelchair,' or `even though you are black or a woman.' Succeed by incorporating what makes you different into your goal and you are perceived as having cheated." Later he notes "In America access is always about architecture and never about human beings. Among Israelis and Palestinians, access was rarely about anything but people. While in the U.S. a wheelchair stands out as an explicitly separate experience from the mainstream, in the Israel and Arab worlds it is just another thing that can go wrong in a place where things go wrong all the time." Hockenberry notes how far people in Jerusalem were willing to go out of their way to help him when the terrain was inaccessible, and contrasts that with his experience trying to use the New York subway, where most people refused to even look at him, let alone offer to assist him in stations without elevators.
Having lived in the Middle East myself for five years, I think Hockenberry was probably right about Israelis and Palestinians more readily acknowledging the humanity of situations involving access for wheelchairs. But I'm not sure that non-disabled Americans are intentionally uncompassionate. As Americans, we are taught that disabled people wish to be independent and don't want any attention drawn to their special circumstances, and they don't want us to push their chairs or grab their white canes. We assume that because there is a law guaranteeing access for all, that access exists and is sufficient and already present in the buildings where it is required. Once the law has been put in place, we assume any needs have already been met. Most of us are unfamiliar with the needs of disabled people- -we don't know how to act around disabled people, what we should do, and what we shouldn't, so perhaps that's why we try not to see the disabled. In that respect, this book fills a dire need: it brings us into the day-to-day life of a remarkable yet ordinary disabled person, introducing us to his life story, dreams, and desires.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
I read this book years ago and it opened my eyes to so much. I really admire how John Hockenberry didn't let his condition keep him from his adventures. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Judy Spiegel
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining Adventure
So often we hear that someone is "confined" to a wheelchair. Hockenberry shatters that image as he shows that the adventure of life continues whether a person walks, runs,... Read more
Published 5 months ago by PEN Name
5.0 out of 5 stars
Breathtaking
Every chapter in this book can stand completely on its own. JH is an incredible writer with an amazing story to tell (and it's not over yet). Read more
Published 23 months ago by D. Krstulovich
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful book!
John Hockenberry's biography is a wonderful read! He is an excellent writer and held my keen attention throughout. Read more
Published on August 6, 2010 by Sarah Giffen-hunter
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is one Bad Dude!
I'll be brief. My mom told me about this book years and years ago. I finally read it a few years ago. Read more
Published on June 25, 2008 by Matt Travelbug
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'm not sure we would get along in life, but that's why I loved this...
I bought this book immediately after a close relative was injured in a car accident. It seemed different than the others (Although some of the others have been a great help in... Read more
Published on June 18, 2008 by Virginreviewer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Moving Violations is a fantastic read
John Hockenberry has a declaration to make, and he does it in an incredibly moving and entertaining manner. I highly recommend this book. Read more
Published on June 3, 2008 by M. Kenney
5.0 out of 5 stars
The book changed my life.
From buying it (i think) 2 days early and reading over a very nice summer weekend in june 1995, i knew this book was - just- different. Read more
Published on October 11, 2005 by Michael Reynolds
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unforgettable Stories That Continue To Resonate With Me
Read this book almost ten years ago. Still can't stop thinking about it. Did all this really happen? Is it happening still? Read more
Published on February 23, 2005 by Star of DBB -
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really had an imact
I shared some of John Hockenberry's book with folks at an elderly home in Alphabet City, NYC. They enjoyed his writing as much as I did, and I'm sure many of them could relate to... Read more
Published on July 25, 2003 by Dawn Gold
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