Slow Dance: A Story of Stroke, Love, and Disability [Hardcover]

Bonnie S. Klein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998

In 1987, filmmaker Bonnie Klein suffered two catastrophic strokes. "Slow Dance" presents her candid, moving account of adapting to life with a disability.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1987, Klein, a Canadian documentary filmmaker (Not a Love Story), suffered two strokes that left her paralyzed, unable to speak and near death. Fortunately, as soon as the persistent author's husband Michael (then chief of family medicine at Jewish General Hospital) discovered that Klein's problem was caused by a supposedly inoperable brain mass, he flew his wife to London, where he found a neurosurgeon who successfully excised most of the mass. Based on the tapes and journals Klein kept during her illness and the long rehabilitation period that followed, this account clearly details the physical and psychological aspects of recovering from such a serious illness. She graphically describes her persistent pain, the loss of bladder and bowel control, as well as her growing awareness of the plight of those whom society designates as disabled. Klein, who now walks with the help of a cane, credits rehab workers and other health-care professionals who encouraged her to struggle for a creative life and express anger at those who did not. She and her husband are committed to the disability-rights movement which fights to change the distorted, but common, images of the disabled. More of an activist's memoir than Robert McCrumb's My Year Off (Forecasts, June 15), Klein's book is likely to have a smaller audience but will be a valuable resource for anyone who has experienced a stroke. Editor, Roy M. Carlisle; agent, Denise Bukowski.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Klein's honesty includes journal entries comparing herself to others as she struggles with her natural hopes of making a full recovery. She follows these with "Interludes" where she comments on her own prejudices and misconceptions and counters them with new insight. Cropping up in the midst of her care and rehabilitation are revelations about health care, patient rights and treatment of the disabled....The honesty of the reflection by her teen-age daughter, who up until the stroke was locked in daily battle with her father, is remarkable. The relationship between father and daughter as aids to each other keeps the reader, as well as the narrator, afloat. -- ForeWord Magazine

The diary of a stroke from its frightening first symptoms to the successful return to a productive-but transformed-life.

Klein is a former documentary filmmaker and an active feminist. On vacation with her doctor-husband, she began to have problems with balance, swallowing, and speaking. Her husband read the symptoms [correctly] as trouble in the brain stem but didn't know the cause. They rushed through the night to his hospital in Montreal, the start of a four-month hospital stay that culminated in radical brain surgery on a congenital tangle of blood vessels in the brain stem that had finally begun to bleed. During most of that time, the author was what the doctors called "locked in," conscious and aware, but unable to speak or move virtually anything but her eyes [through which she saw double]. For a time, only her husband, and sometimes her teenage children, were able to fully understand what she needed. This book is a combination of her own memories and journal entries, plus interviews with her family, friends, and caretakers, some of whom were less than caring. Three years of intensive rehabilitation followed, including alternative therapies. She was able to finish a film and even promote it, but she also discovered that the world was not kind to the disabled. Finally accepting that she would never be physically as she was before, she made friends with an electric scooter dubbed Gladys, launched a radio show, and is an activist for the disabled. She credits friends, family, work, and the fact that her husband's profession gave her a special edge in her recovery.

Klein offers a straightforward and detailed account of her road back; her sharp observations on the obstacles facing disabled individuals [bathrooms are all important] are more effective advocacy than a more highly charged polemic might be. -- Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 1998

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: PageMill Press (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879290154
• ISBN-13: 978-1879290150
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,561,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Story of a Stroke Survivor: A Hero, Her Family & Friends, January 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Slow Dance: A Story of Stroke, Love, and Disability (Hardcover)

This book should be required reading for anyone in the field of rehabilitation. And it is a tremendously inspiring story for all of us who wonder how we could ever manage if we were struck with a disabling illness. If it were fiction it would be a great read. The fact that it's a true story gives one goosebumps as well. Bonnie Klein suffered a devastating stroke. This book is about her recovery - both physical and psychological - and the wonderful love and support she received from friends and family, especially from a wonderful husband. It also shows the predjudice and meanness of some people when they are faced with a person who is "different". And the ignorance and arrogance of some of the rehabilitation "professionals" she encountered along the way. It is a story of terror, hope, the tremendous importance of love and support, and how one finally comes to terms with being less facile physically than one used to be. Bonnie Klein is a hero. Her family and friends most loving and genuine. It is a great read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughts from a Stroke Survivor, March 2, 2001

By 

Linda M. Wisman (Mt. Prospect, Il USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Out of the Blue: One Woman's Story of Stroke, Love, and Survival (Paperback)

This is a great book! I have read a number of books written by stroke survivors and this is one of the best. This may well be because the book was completed several years after the event. This time gave Ms. Klein the chance to gather and refine her thoughts and experiences.

I am also a stroke survivor. Her acknowledgement that she experienced progress long after the stroke was especially encouraging to me. The medical world says that all progress stops in 3 months to a year. My experience is that the body is a living entity, which is forever changing. So, it makes sense that it would not stop changing because of any medical condition.

The book has humor and is written in a warm and caring context. I would recommend it not only for stoke survivors, but also for caretakers and for health professionals

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insight into living with chronic illness., December 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Slow Dance: A Story of Stroke, Love, and Disability (Hardcover)

Ms. Klein establishes important rules to live a fruitful, productive lifestyle, despite a chronic illness: Live life by celebrating life. Independence is control over one's own life measured by the quality of life sustained with whatever help is needed. Sometimes dispair can lead to depression. Sometimes, it can be motivating.