Fiction. This fictionalized account of disability, according to Mary Johnson, fills a gap in human understanding. It accomplished my definition of the purpose of any art. It changed the way I think about the subject. I was forced to rethink my own assumptions about being disabled and the rights of disabled people...By placing the reader in the wheelchair, in the closet, in the window watching, it demystitied many aspects of the physical reality of awareness and experience in such a way that we could all feel and smell what the main character did-- Moira Adams, writer and social activist. Emily .... funny, imaginative and downright spunky, .... will move the reader to laughter as often as tears. -- Kentucky Monthly, June 2001 Now it's up to us-the reading public-to see that GETTING LIFE finds a home throughout libraries all over the world. -- Institute for Disability Culture Manifesto #27 This is an excellent novel, the kind all of us writers aspire to produce. This book does what few others do. It gets into the mind of the primary character in a way that draws you into her world so completely you don't want to let her go, says Steve Brown of the Institute for Disability Culture. As the novel begins the protagonist, Emily, is a non-verbal, nursing home resident who has sat like a lump on a borrowed wheelchair for most of the past seventeen years. But Emily is not a lump; she is a thinking, feeling human being who has never had the opportunity to show her stuff. Raised by an aunt and uncle after her mother was killed in an accident Emily is subjected to tender care from her uncle and abuse and despair from her aunt. When both these relatives die, she is dumped into the nursing home where she believes she'll stay forever. In one of the novel's many ironies, it is neglect and abuse that changes Emily's life. She is so badly neglected by a member of the nursing home staff that she finds herself in a hospital-and that turns out to be the best thing that could have happened for her. An empathetic doctor sees that there is more to Emily than meets the eye and begins a course of liberating Emily from the nursing home. This doesn't happen overnight. Just like in real life, Emily has lots of time on her hands in the nursing home, which has been home for many years. She's not that eager to just up and leave. And how can she, she wonders, since she doesn't speak; she can't walk, no one outside of the nursing home will take care of her and on and on. Emily shares her struggles, her pains, her triumphs with us on the path to freedom with which the book concludes. This is a triumphant story, but more importantly it's a fascinating one which takes us into the minds of several nursing home residents, touches on the lives of several staff members of an independent living center and includes an ADAPT-like group for emphasis. "As I read," said Brown, "my only regret was that not every town has an independent living center like the one in the book-patient, knowledgeable, resourceful, and persistent. "The highest praise I can give the book is this. Reading it was the last thing I did last night and finishing it was the first thing I did upon waking up in the morning. I couldn't wait to see how Emily began her life. GETTING LIFE has joined Jean Stewart's THE BODY'S MEMORY and Anne Finger's THE BONE TRUTH as the best novels I have read about the daily experience of disability. It should be in every CIL and anyone interested in the state of disability consciousness in the new millennium should find a copy. GETTING LIFE does an incredible job of acknowledging too often unheard voices. Julie Shaw Cole practiced expressive therapy for over thirty years, working with families, women, and people living with disabilities. Since retiring she now takes care of preschoolers and babies at Catholic Charities. She volunteers as a Citizen Advocate, does a little art, a little knitting, a lot of gardening and reading. She has written two books about independent living, Getting Life , and Safely Home , with Betty Atherton. Used Book in Good Condition