Books like My Left Foot

This book is all about character. If you are going to have to live with the kind of disability that hides your intelligence, as cerebral palsey did Christy Brown's, and you want to live as full a life as possible, then two things are indispensible. One is a supporter with a great strength of character who will enable you to do whatever you can. The other is to have great strength of character yourself and maintain it when all around you see only your disability, not your glowing intelligence, talent and determination to live a full life. It also helps to have, as Dr. Stephen Hawking had, a lot of money. Christy Brown and his mother might have lacked money, but they were strong together, sometimes the total is far more than the sum of its parts. And so he achieved a good life through his talents of writing, poetry and painting, and that the brought the money that made his life and that of his mother that much easier. He died tragically of choking at dinner at home. He was 49.