Reviews
Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence by John Hockenberry
kimberwolf's review against another edition
5.0
Moving Violations is the memoir of a man who is living life on 11 despite an auto accident he was involved in at age 19 in which he incurred spinal injuries that left him paralyzed from his chest down. The book was written 19 years later, when he is 38 and has lived half of his life as a walking person, and half in a wheelchair. His accident was in 1976, before the Americans with Disabilities Act went into effect, and he came across many, many barriers to success, but he smashed through them -- not without some anger and bitterness. He never let his disability get in the way of what he wanted, and he seemed to always want to take the most challenging route. I felt equal parts exasperation and admiration as I read the essay-like chapters of his life story that told the briefest amount about his life before the accident and most detailed his adventures after, including his jobs, family, personal life, and medical details. He worked in radio, including becoming an NPR foreign correspondence, and later a TV news journalist. He visited war-torn countries and regions in crises, including Israel and Palestine, Iraq, and Somalia. He's a good writer and really lays it all out without holding back. He's a complex person with a lot of motivation and drive, and a lot of stubbornness and anger, and a lot of compassion too. I learned so much reading this book. It's been 19 additional years since it was published -- I hope John Hockenberry is still finding adventures that satisfy him but I also hope he's found a bigger measure of peace too in the years that have passed.
stevie_knits's review
5.0
One of my favorite non-fiction books I've read. Wonderful juxtaposition of the author's rehabilitation after a debilitating car crash and his life as a journalist covering the wars in the Middle East.
ericwelch's review against another edition
4.0
Most of the Christian landmarks [in the Middle East] are dormant shrines to old arguments between popes and Orthodox patriarchs and caliphs having little to do with the time or place Jesus grew up and died. There are a handful of historically dubious places for Christian pilgrims. The dingy grottoes, tombs, and street corners where Jesus was thrown, dragged, bled, drank some vinegar, was condemned and then nailed to a post one spring day 2,000 years ago are mobbed with tourists and souvenir salesmen today.
"The Church of the Holy Sepulcher itself is a sprawling trophy from the Byzantine Empire administered grumpily by representatives of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Seventeen centuries ago they argued whether Christ had three aspects or just one, whether he was rich or poor, whether he needed a spokesman or just a book. Today the same churches argue over who will fix the leaky roof over the place where an angel allegedly told the first Christians, 'Seek ye not the living among the dead.' It was the last time that advice was heeded.
"Among the millions of pilgrims in Jerusalem, it was the Christians who came looking for God as if to confirm a juicy rumor they had heard. Christians have been trolling and casting for God since before the crucifixion. Just as Jesus found some sympathetic anglers right off the bat and convinced them to join the coming Christian hordes, Christians approach the question of finding God with the gusto of a fisherman working a trout stream. Each denomination has its own strategy for hooking the big one. Catholics go for the shiny lures with lots of ugly dangling hooks. Protestants like live bait." (From Moving Violations)
"The Church of the Holy Sepulcher itself is a sprawling trophy from the Byzantine Empire administered grumpily by representatives of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Seventeen centuries ago they argued whether Christ had three aspects or just one, whether he was rich or poor, whether he needed a spokesman or just a book. Today the same churches argue over who will fix the leaky roof over the place where an angel allegedly told the first Christians, 'Seek ye not the living among the dead.' It was the last time that advice was heeded.
"Among the millions of pilgrims in Jerusalem, it was the Christians who came looking for God as if to confirm a juicy rumor they had heard. Christians have been trolling and casting for God since before the crucifixion. Just as Jesus found some sympathetic anglers right off the bat and convinced them to join the coming Christian hordes, Christians approach the question of finding God with the gusto of a fisherman working a trout stream. Each denomination has its own strategy for hooking the big one. Catholics go for the shiny lures with lots of ugly dangling hooks. Protestants like live bait." (From Moving Violations)
ktlove's review against another edition
4.0
This was a spur-of-the-moment, used bookstore purchase, and I'm glad I got it. It's got some wonderful poignant moments and his radio background helps his writing make you feel like you're actually there. Like any good radio journalist, he paints the pictures with his words.
Reading about the first Gulf War from the perspective of today is always interesting. Add in his insights into handicapped life in America (and its parallels to minority life in America) and it's just a fascinating book to read.
I think the most telling part, for me at least, was when he talked about how, given the chance, he probably wouldn't change it so he was never paralyzed...according to him, for the most part, middle-class white America just kind of observes life and the world. Since his accident, he's been forced to engage on a whole different level he might never had had the chance to experience.
Anyway, definitely fits the description of a "good read."
Reading about the first Gulf War from the perspective of today is always interesting. Add in his insights into handicapped life in America (and its parallels to minority life in America) and it's just a fascinating book to read.
I think the most telling part, for me at least, was when he talked about how, given the chance, he probably wouldn't change it so he was never paralyzed...according to him, for the most part, middle-class white America just kind of observes life and the world. Since his accident, he's been forced to engage on a whole different level he might never had had the chance to experience.
Anyway, definitely fits the description of a "good read."
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