megbomb's review
4.0
Planet of the Blind is a brilliant written memoir of one man's experience with visual impairment. His lyrical description of how he sees the world is captivating. I learned so much about what it means to be ableist, without any sort of confrontation or bullying from the author. I heartily recommend this to anyone interested in learning about disability and how difficult it is to navigate this world, not only as one that is unable to see well, but as one that is unable to see well that is attempting to pass as a sighted person. You will be shocked at Kuusisto's perseverance through trials and near constant physical pain.
beccak's review
5.0
Beautiful writing that makes you laugh out loud, gasp, and cry. Not usually a memoir person, but this one was so good I breezed through it.
terriep's review
2.0
This book wasn't for me. Though the story itself is interesting, I'm not a fan of the style. Kuusisto is a poet and the book is too ...... literary? .... for me. Too formal. Filled with lots of poem snippets and references that I don't know so couldn't connect with.
The book describes his experience with his blindness. He has a very partial vision condition where his eyes move independently and roam all over the place. He sees everything in a smoosh of color and shadow; he just doesn't know if the dark is a tree, a person or just a shadow. He describes how difficult it was for him to function in the sighted world, all the time not admitting his blindness. In fact he didn't begin to admit publicly and even to himself that he was blind till he was in his 30s. He just went barreling along, pretending.
The only part of the book that I enjoyed were the 20 pages or so about getting a guide dog. Those descriptions were clear and unambiguous and delightful.
#BooklistQueen, #ReadHarder2020 #Popsugar2020 reading challenge categories
The book describes his experience with his blindness. He has a very partial vision condition where his eyes move independently and roam all over the place. He sees everything in a smoosh of color and shadow; he just doesn't know if the dark is a tree, a person or just a shadow. He describes how difficult it was for him to function in the sighted world, all the time not admitting his blindness. In fact he didn't begin to admit publicly and even to himself that he was blind till he was in his 30s. He just went barreling along, pretending.
The only part of the book that I enjoyed were the 20 pages or so about getting a guide dog. Those descriptions were clear and unambiguous and delightful.
#BooklistQueen, #ReadHarder2020 #Popsugar2020 reading challenge categories
More...