Waist-High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled Paperback - 1997

From the rear cover

In Waist-High in the World, Mairs explores in her inimitable voice the subject that has always been in the background of her writing, but which she takes on here for the first time at book-length - disability and the way it shapes a life. The result is a brave and beautiful book that will open new worlds for readers. It begins with a disavowal ("I cannot begin to write this book....I don't want to think about my crippled life") and ends with a declaration of hope ("I choose joy"). In between, Mairs gives us a brilliant portrait of an issue and experience too rarely portrayed and talked about. She begins with subjects close to home: the personal history of her disease, the intimate realities of the body, the moral economy of care and caregiving, life with her husband and children. The second half of the book covers topics that look outward: women with disabilities, obstacles physical and social, the ethics of selective abortion and euthanasia, the joys and troubles of travel, and more.

Media reviews

Graceful yet gritty paradoxes drive this extraordinary book, which uses the author's degenerative disease, multiple sclerosis, as a window into a very particular soul. . . . Let the reader understand: this is not a book about MS, or about illness; rather, it's a chronicle of inspired adaptation, spiritual as well as physical, to limits. The aim is the creation of joy. -Sallie Bingham, The New Mexican

"Woe is not her, as she makes clear throughout this absorbing, laceratingly honest book. . . . This social construction of disability . . . is what Mairs most wants us to 'get' in this passionate, penetrating book-and then get over." -Marian Sandmeier, The Washington Post Book World

"Vintage Mairs: sharply observed, deeply personal and always direct." -Michael Haederle, Los Angeles Times

"As helpful as Mairs's book will be to disabled people, what's most important about it is its lessons for able-bodied readers." -Kathi Wolfe, The Progressive

"Rich, startling and utterly absorbing." -Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Mairs's physical view of the world may be waist-high, but her intellectual and spiritual range is limitless." -Donna Seaman, Booklist, starred review

"'One sharp instrument is left me: my tongue.' This [Mairs] wields like a finely crafted baton, leading her readers to an ever deeper understanding of the human condition." -Yvonne Duffy, Detroit Free Press