I Live a Life Like Yours: A Memoir

Description

I am not talking about surviving... I am not talking about becoming human, but about how I came to realize that I had always been human. I am writing about all I wanted to have, and how I got it. I am writing about what it cost, and how I was able to afford it. Jan Grue was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy at the age of three and began using a wheelchair not long after. In this lyrical memoir, he uncovers what it means to have lived, and to continue to live, in a body that the world struggles to accept as normal. Writing with humour and bracing frankness, Grue draws from art, fiction and criticism to forge a literary language that can tell his story. He revises the clinical definitions of his childhood medical records, undoing their definition of his body as defective. He writes movingly of his love for his wife Ida, and the endless possibilities that he perceives in their young son. Unflinching yet always compassionate, I Live A Life Like Yours is a groundbreaking memoir that fiercely and tenderly rewrites our understanding of the body, relationships and family. 'Humbling, dark, bright, defiant, generous and...revolutionary' - David Mitchell 'An elegant meditation on what it's like to be a body that does not resemble most other bodies... A tart and spare palate cleanser' - Vulture

Jan Grue was born in 1981 in Oslo. He has a congenital muscular dystrophy. A writer of fiction, non-fiction and children's literature, he is also Professor of Qualitative Research at the University of Oslo. His debut short story collection, Everything Under Control, was published in 2010, and he has since published five further short story collections, a novel, a number of children's books and several academic books. I Live A Life Like Yours was published in Norway in 2018 and hailed as a major milestone in Norwegian non-fiction. It is the first Norwegian non-fiction book to be nominated to the Nordic Council's Literature Prize in 50 years.

'In this nuanced and beautiful book, Grue takes us on both an experiential and intellectual journey through disability. In the process he offers us doorways into reimagining a world where disability is welcomed and vulnerability supported. I Live a Life Like Yours is one of those rare books you won't be able to put down, yet will want to return to again and again to random pages for the insights and reflections they offer. A gift to read' - Sunaura Taylor, author of 'Beasts of Burden' 'All of us, whether we consider ourselves disabled or nondisabled, will understand more fully what it means to be human if we accompany Jan Grue in his rich travels from his story of limitation to his story of fulfillment' - Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, author of 'Extraordinary Bodies' 'Grue elegantly flows between memoir, essay, and intellectual discourse... He brilliantly articulates what it's like to be "erased and rewritten," and, more poignantly, what it's like to obliterate the narrative one's been handed. This stunning work isn't to be missed' - Publisher's Weekly, starred review 'An exploration of identity, of premises, boundaries and transgressions in which Grue opens up a broad horizon in language that is free and refined. The outcome is literature of relevance and greatness' - Dagsavisen 'Jan Grue begins with a first person singular and ends with a first person plural, the family he has forged with his wife and son. Throughout the reading the reader also feels a part of his we, and to be incorporated into it feels utterly splendid and enriching in every way' - Literary Critics' Prize 2018 - Judges' Comments 'A witty account of surviving in a vulnerable body, and a powerful examination of the meaning of disability... a quietly wonderful memoir' - Independent 'It would be hard to read this book and not empathise profoundly with its author. It is perhaps the perfect book to read if you are struggling for whatever reason to make sense of what it means to be disabled' - Literary Review 'A quietly brilliant book' - New York Times 'A sensitive examination of the meaning of disability... Frank and often moving... Absorbing, insightful reflections on being human' - Kirkus Reviews