Customer Reviews

Twilight: Losing Sight, Gaining Insight

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Age Related Macular Degeneration is incurable and is the leading cause of sight loss and blindness among men over the age of sixty. Henry Grunwald is the former editor-in-chief of all Time, Inc., publications and under President Reagan US Ambassador to his native Austria. You may recall that he wrote a piece on his loss of vision in The New Yorker in 1996. This is an excellent book for those of you who have friends or relatives (or yourselves) who must learn to accept vision loss. Grunwald, whose life is lived through words and art, recounts his angry fight against and then acceptance of his condition, a fight filled with frustrations, depressions. He learns that "IT COULD BE WORSE". I called KNOPF, the publisher. They have no plans to issue an AUDIO version, but they have made an AUDIO VERSION available to THE LIGHTHOUSE for the Blind in Manhattan. COntact the store at LIGHTHOUSE.ORG

This is a sensitive, inspirational book about Henry Grunwald's journey into macular degeneration. I am buying two more books for my brothers to increase their understanding of our mother's struggle with this disease. And speaking of my mother, she would love to read this book (especially the part about mistaking the Princess of Wales for Diane Sawyer)and she would be inspired by his account of "losing sight, gaining insight." Unfortunately, she can't do either because the book isn't in LARGE,BOLD. BLACK TYPE or ON TAPE. Publisher Alfred A Knopf, ARE YOU LISTENING?

This slim yet satisfying narrative caught me off guard with its subtle prose and striking wisdom. Henry Grunwald writes with a journalist's precision, weaving a case for slowing down to enjoy life's little details. Reading this book will only take you a couple of days, but it just might change your life.

I received this book as Christmas present and read it in a couple of hours. Recently at the age of 43, I experienced retinal detachment in one eye with the risk of the same in the other eye. Grunwald's writing, with its humor about his predicament, and his thoughtful analysis of how his life has (and has not) changed, really touched me. I recommend it to anyone with low vision or anyone living with someone with low vision. The book is available on tape from the Lighthouse Foundation, by the way (according to a newspaper article I read).

Powerful and well written, this book really gives you a feel for what it must be like to live with macular degeneration and watch your world blur away. But note to publisher...PLEASE, GET THIS BOOK ON TAPE IMMEDIATELY! The whole point is to gain compassion for (and grow closer to) those living with M.D., but how can I discuss the book with my Gram unless she's heard it? Did the publisher fall asleep at the wheel on this one?

My mother has macular degeneration and needed this book on tape. .... My mom found the book to be very helpful. I also read it to try to understand better what she deals with every day. She also purchased 2 copies of the book in hardcover for her eye specialists. Although they know all the medical information already, the book can give them insight into their patient's plight. I recommend the book to anyone who knows or works with someone with low vision.

The book is excellent, but how can you ignore those who would gain the most from this message? The fact that you have not yet put this book into an audio format is unbelievable. I have been watching and waiting for a year in order to give it to my aunt who has MD and is a voracious audio "reader." Isn't anybody listening???

This is a brilliant analysis of the deterioration of vision by Mr. Grunwald who has gone through it. He handles his unfortunate situation with grace and class.

I am very surprised that this text has not been published in audio form since there are so many individuals who cannot read because of AMD, but would gain so much from Mr. Grunwalds words.

As a new person to the field of age-related vision loss, I picked up Grunwald's book and instantly felt a genuine person telling me his story and explaining his perspectives. His book is not compartamentalized in medical, emotional and social sections. It is a natural journey through which you begin to understand what Grunwald experienced.

As a writer myself, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to no longer pick up your own books and read them, as in Grunwald's account of his frustration or simply write and edit with ease.

His plain English explanation of his feelings, situations and medical details of his vision loss has been a gift that has helped me understand what persons with degenerative vision loss are going through. Thank you Henry for pouring yourself into a book, just to help so many others affected directly and indirectly by degenerative vision loss. Your impact lasts beyond the last words in your book.

Henry Gunwald's experiences with macular degeneration - a gradually loss of sight which affects the elderly - details his growing disability and his struggle to understand new, increasing limitations in his strong autobiography Twilight. From his visual awakening as a child to his revised perspective as an adult, this muses on the nature of sight and its loss.