A haunting, brilliantly imagined memoir about coming to terms with near-blindness, this is the story of a 'lost man with a speck of something like seeing.' Born prematurely, Stephen Kuusisto has been fractionally sighted since a post-natal operation severely damaged his retinas. Yet he grew up pretending he could see. Planet of the Blind tells his story - the years of a lonely childhood spent behind bottle-lens glasses, the consuming fear of ridicule and derision, the struggle through college that brings him from obesity to ...
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A haunting, brilliantly imagined memoir about coming to terms with near-blindness, this is the story of a 'lost man with a speck of something like seeing.' Born prematurely, Stephen Kuusisto has been fractionally sighted since a post-natal operation severely damaged his retinas. Yet he grew up pretending he could see. Planet of the Blind tells his story - the years of a lonely childhood spent behind bottle-lens glasses, the consuming fear of ridicule and derision, the struggle through college that brings him from obesity to anorexia. With his nose pressed into the spine of a book in furious attempts to read, riding a bicycle at insane speeds, never truly knowing the face of his first lover, he stumbles through half a lifetime enraged and mortified. This is the record of a handicapped life; but it is also an extraordinary literary achievement. Kuusisto has managed to translate his opaque, kaleidoscopic world of shape and colour into poetic and luminous prose. Planet of the Blind conveys life as it is lived by one whose visual impressions are 'at once beautiful and largely useless', and for whom normality is continuously transformed by his blindness into an intense aesthetic experience.
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Add this copy of Planet of the Blind to cart. $0.99, good condition, Sold by ZBK Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Woodland Park, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by The Dial Press.
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Used book in good and clean conditions. Pages and cover are intact. Limited notes marks and highlighting may be present. May show signs of normal shelf wear and bends on edges. Item may be missing CDs or access codes. May include library marks. Fast Shipping.
Add this copy of Planet of the Blind to cart. $1.86, good condition, Sold by Gulf Coast Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Memphis, TN, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by The Dial Press.
Add this copy of Planet of the Blind to cart. $1.86, good condition, Sold by Orion Tech rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Arlington, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by The Dial Press.
Add this copy of Planet of the Blind to cart. $2.30, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Faber & Faber.
Add this copy of Planet of the Blind to cart. $3.10, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Dial Press.
Add this copy of Planet of the Blind to cart. $3.30, very good condition, Sold by The Maryland Book Bank rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from baltimore, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Dial Press.
Add this copy of Planet of the Blind to cart. $3.99, very good condition, Sold by Wonder Book - Member ABAA/ILAB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Frederick, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Faber & Faber.
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Very Good. Very Good condition. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain light spine creasing or a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp.
Add this copy of Planet of the Blind to cart. $4.27, very good condition, Sold by Wonder Book - Member ABAA/ILAB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Frederick, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Dial Press.
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Very Good. Very Good condition. Good dust jacket. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp.
Add this copy of Planet of the Blind to cart. $4.48, like new condition, Sold by Wonder Book - Member ABAA/ILAB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Frederick, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Dial Press.
Add this copy of Planet of the Blind to cart. $6.10, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by Thorndike Press.
Author's childhood was spent trying to fit in as someone who happened to be "near-sighted" - truth is he's been legally blind since the time he started school. Getting to the "liberation" scene of him going out for the first time with Corky, not having to worry about where he was going, is worth the read alone.
