My Body Politic : A Memoir Hardback

An irreverent memoir of one woman's personal and political journey from 1960s counterculture to disability activism While hitchhiking from Boston to Washington D.C. in 1971 to protest the war in Vietnam, Simi Linton was involved in a car accident that paralyzed both of her legs and took the lives of her husband and her best friend.

This spirited memoir recounts her struggle to regain physical and emotional strength and to resume her life in the world - tracing her journey to Berkeley, to Europe, and back to New York City - as well as her growing awareness of what it means to be a disabled person in this country.

Linton eventually attended Columbia University, remarried, and began teaching at Hunter College.

Along the way she became deeply committed to the disability rights movement, and to the disabled people she joined forces with.

The stories in My Body Politic are populated with richly drawn portraits of unforgettable characters, people of conviction who also dance and play with passion and abandon.

My Body Politic begins with a story of a demonstration against the war in Vietnam, and concludes with a meditation on the U.S. involvement in the current war in Iraq, and the war's wounded veterans.

While the book tells a serious story of the author's political awakening and move toward disability activism, it is filled with moments of celebration; James Brown, Salvador Dali, and Jim Hendrix among many others make cameo appearances.

Throughout, readers will encounter moments of moving testimony, penetrating insight, righteous anger, and lusty humor.