Product Description

Christy Brown was born a victim of cerebral palsy. But the hapless, lolling baby concealed the brilliantly imaginative and sensitive mind of a writer who would take his place among the giants of Irish literature. This is Christy Brown's own story. He recounts his childhood struggle to learn to read, write, paint and finally type, with the toe of his left foot. In this manner he wrote his bestseller "Down all the Days".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75717 in Books
• Published on: 1990-12-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
Christy Brown was born in 1932. He was one of 23 children born to a Dublin bricklayer. A victim of cerebral palsy, he could not control his speech or his movement, apart from his left foot. This enabled him to paint and type this autobiography. He later wrote an autobiographical novel, IDown all the Days/I, which was very successful. His novels include IA Promising Career/I, IA Shadow on Summer/I and IWild Grow the Lillies/I, and he also published his poetry in ICollected Poems/I. Christy Brown died in 1981.

Customer Reviews

A TESTAMENT TO THE RESILIENCY OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT...
This is the story of a young man who was born in Ireland in 1932, after a difficult birth and with a severe disability that the doctors of the time were unable to name. They urged his parents to disavow him, as he was, they believed, an imbecile with a severely spastic body. Moreover, his parents then had five other children, all healthy. Christy's mother, however, refused to institutionalize him, keeping him at home and treating him as she would her other children. It would not be until years later that she would learn that Christy's affliction was severe cerebral palsy.

Imprisoned in a world all his own and seeming without means to communicate, Christy, at the age of five, made an attempt at communication that was to change his life forever. By breaking the communications barrier, Christy demonstrated that he could learn and understand. From then on, his capacity for learning was prodigious. Who would have thought that within his severely contorted and convulsed body lay a razor sharp mind and a thirst for knowledge? Certainly not the medical community, which had been so willing to consign him to institutional living. Armed with his left foot, the only part of his body over which he seemed to have some control, Christy Brown would demonstrate to the world who he really was. He was, after all, not the imbecile that the medical community had originally thought but an intelligent and sentient human being.

This is Christy Brown's triumphant and inspirational story of his battle to learn to read, write, and paint, all with the aid of his left foot. It is an inspirational story of his quest for fulfillment. His yearning to be as others are is palpable, and his struggle for acceptance beyond the borders of his home and his physical limitations are well articulated. Christy Brown gives the reader a birds-eye view of what it is like to be a person with severe cerebral palsy. First published in Great Britain in 1954, when Christy Brown was twenty-two, this book, written with his left foot, is a testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.

my left foot.-what i think.
The autobiographical account of Christy Browns life is disturbing, thought provoking and yet heart warming at the same time. it is the most perfect example of how we can all acheive our dreams, we just have to try hard enough. It is one of, if not the best book i have ever read.

You must read it!
"There are two first principles attached to writing any sort of story: first, you must have a story to tell, and, secondly, you must tell it in such a way that the person reading it can live in it himself." There is no shadow of a doubt that Christy Brown has an incredible story to tell - the story of a victim of cerebral palsy - and that he found the way to make us feel all the uniqueness of his status, rather than the pity. I started reading this book in the waiting room of a station, and I had to restrain my tears. The first two chapters are absolutely astonishing, deeply absorbing. You feel them into your bones.