James Tate Hill

A writer who loses nearly all of his sight is a challenging situation, made even more so by his prolonged and desperate attempts to keep his disability hidden. He questions whether listening to audiobooks is truly reading (“To read is to analyze, to study, to process information, and yet a tiny limp in the shape of a lie surfaced each time I used this verb to refer to titles I checked out from my special library.”) His efforts to camouflage himself as a sighted person sometimes rob him of the very assistance that he needs to succeed in college, in dating, in crossing the street. (“How should you say you’ve been legally blind since you were sixteen? You could try to hide it, as you’ve done for so many years, but passing for sighted, you’re finally able to admit, hasn’t worked out as you hoped it would. In trying so hard not to be different, you’ve been a poor attempt at ordinary.” Often funny, but the choppy sequence of this memoir interfered with the reading for me. I wanted to know more about how he finally succeeded in navigating the world and his second, happier, marriage: does he use a cane now? other technology? None of that was shared.… (mehr)

I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir, both for its pathos and humor. James Tate Hill spent many years trying to conceal his disability from nearly everyone. He avoided situations where his lack of vision would be obvious. He endangered his life by crossing streets unaided. Besides his parents, only a very few close friends knew of his legal blindness. He developed all sorts of tricks to hide his disability, and where they wouldn’t work, he just avoided social situations. Eventually though, he came to terms with his vision loss. In this touching memoir, he talks about his failures and successes as a writer, about his relationships dating women and marrying, only to be served with divorce papers when she couldn’t cope with his blindness. Hill’s perseverance to overcome his disability and to succeed in all aspects of life, and to find fulfillment in his career and in his personal life, is awe-inspiring.… (mehr)

James Tate Hill’s moving memoir is an excellent case study of what happens when we refuse to accept things as they are and when we are overly invested in other people’s opinions. Hill is a problem solver with a sense of humor, but by trying to hide the severity of his vision loss he makes his life much more difficult and isolated than it needs to be. Written with compassion for his younger self, Hill helps the reader fully appreciate the difficulties of living with vision loss and the way technology and friends can help us overcome our limitations.… (mehr)