Cockeyed

(Paperback, Main)

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Description

On his eighteenth birthday Ryan Knighton was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a congenital, progressive disease marked by night blindness, tunnel vision and, eventually, total blindness. Blending mordant wit with intense personal reflection, Cockeyed is the story of Ryan's loss of sight. We follow his journey from absolute denial - which lost Ryan his trousers, his girlfriend and, perhaps unsurprisingly, his driving licence - to acceptance of life without vision and reliance on a cane. Utterly irreverent, this tour of our everyday world conducted by a wicked, smart, blind guy reveals the world of the sighted in all its phenomenal peculiarity. Ryan Knighton's memoir makes us discover the world afresh, and reminds us that even the most ordinary things have extraordinary and precious qualities.

Reviews

"'Wonderfully readable... Well judged and enlightening... Cockeyed is an unparalleled user's guide to blindness that will benefit the sighted as much as the sightless.'"

Author Bio

Ryan Knighton lives in Vancouver and teaches English at Vancouver's CapilanoCollege. A poet, journalist and essayist he writes for the New York Times and Salon.com and is the subject of a documentary entitled 'As Slow as Possible'. Cockeyed is his first book.