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California Literary Review

Disability

Messenger: The Legacy of Mattie J.T. Stepanek and Heartsongs by Jeni Stepanek

by Ryan Van Cleave

November 11th, 2009

He explains it in his journals as “Whatever it is that a person needs or wants, they understand why that matters, and that is the unfolding of their Heartsong . . . And as we learn in almost every religion or philosophy of goodness, it is in giving that we receive. In sharing our Heartsong with others, it goes out into the world, and somehow, circles back to us.”

Marlee Matlin: Bold Moves and Few Regrets

by Elinor Teele

June 10th, 2009

“I worry about nothing except doing work that I like and that I look at as quality work. I don’t think of legacies or what people think. They are bold moves because I’ve found I can get the most attention with doing things that people don’t expect of me. It’s just the way it is.”

Driftless by David Rhodes

by John Holt

November 11th, 2008

In his first book in more than thirty years Rhodes proves with ease why when he stopped writing after a paralyzing motorcycle crash in 1977 he was considered one of this country’s finest writers.

Deaf Sentence by David Lodge

by Jascha Kessler

October 7th, 2008

Reflecting on DEAF SENTENCE, the reader can hear the echoes of awful laughter — that silent cacchination encountered everywhere in Beckett’s writing — which characterizes our present lot, with its extended, often forcibly prolonged, old age. Lodge’s transparent prose plays out in a sophisticated informal, everyday voice; his is artful writing that succeeds in that most difficult literary genre, Comedy.

Jill Bolte Taylor’s Right Brain Wants to Tell Us Something

by Paul Comstock

July 2nd, 2008

“I had a rare congenital malformation in the blood vessels of my left hemisphere and at the age of 37 the malformation (AVM) blew and resulted in a major hemorrhage in the left half of my brain. On the morning of the stroke, I could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of my life. I describe myself as an infant in a woman’s body.”

Frida Kahlo at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

by Ed Voves

June 16th, 2008

Art critics may speculate about the influences on Kahlo’s style or her place in modern art. In the end, these reflections, however valid some of the details may be, diminish Kahlo’s achievement. The truth of Frida Kahlo’s life is startlingly simple. She recorded the realty of her life without flinching, creating for herself a world that conformed to her insights and her experience. And in the process, Frida Kahlo’s art became Frida Kahlo’s life.

Sudden Onset

by Allen Rucker

March 25th, 2007

From that first tingling in bed to calling 911 was an hour and a half. Sudden onset, they call it.

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  • The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell: Sam notes: I couldn’t agree more. I have loved the previous books and generally, once started, don’t put the book down until finished. This...
  • The Help by Kathryn Stockett: Joyce Parkhurst notes: I am 74 years old. I remember the 60s well. I have spent 10 years living with black people in both Oakland and Los Angeles. The voices of...
  • Sudden Onset: Jeff notes: I do agree with the ex naval officer above, try to stay positive, even though I was in the hospital and not able to walk for weeks I kept telling myself that I was going...
  • Sudden Onset: Jeff notes: I had TM in 1990, and I was playing in AAA at the time for SD Padres, I went from the prime of my life to this disease, I feel sorry for all the people and their families...
  • The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell: Linda Champion notes: I ditto your criticism! Spot on! I only finished the Scarpetta Factor because I’d already invested so much time in it. Kept...