Spinal Dogs

SPINAL DOGS
"A day in the life of Ivor Disabilitybich"
By William Gruar
$25.00

Spinal Dogs by William Gruar, Valid Press Publishing
Order Spinal Dogs by William Gruar

ISBN 0-473-04224-X
Postage inclusive within New Zealand.
Add $5 for overseas postage.

About

A paraplegic experiences one day of recovery and rehabilitation in the Otara Spinal Unit three months after his accident.

Like Solzhenitsyn the writer faces huge challenges with great humour, insight and fortitiude.

While the reader may never laugh aloud or weep in sympathy, the parade of real characters leaves an indelible impresssion without recourse to tear-jerking and heart-wrenching.

The effects of the accident are discussed and exposed as the reader shares in the retraining and readjustment of the final stages of a comprehensive rehabilitation.

What do cripples think, how do they control their bodies and their emotions, how 'normal' are they?

Through encounters with nurses, doctors, medical specialists and the patients themselves we enter a new world.

Reviews

  • "An angry, funny, thoughtful book … proof that he can write very well indeed"

- Sue McCauley- NZ Listener.

  • "Spinal Dogs deserves to be read by a wide audience. It is a tragedy redeemed by courage and above all, the author's fine sense of humour"

- Graeme Lay- North and South.

  • "A remarkable book, neither sentimental nor as grim as I'd expected it to be"

- Elizabeth Cayford- The Dominion.

  • "It is a measure of how well it is written that the reader is left wondering what has happened in the life of this intelligent, amusing, enterprising and courageous man since he left the spinal unit"

- Bill Moore- The Nelson Mail.