Crashing Through

April 16, 2007
Blinded in a childhood accident, Mike May never hesitated to try anything—driving a motorcycle, hiking alone in the woods, downhill skiing—until the day, when May was 46, an ophthalmologist told him a new stem-cell and cornea transplant could restore his vision. As Esquire
contributing editor Kurson (Shadow Divers
) relates, the decision to have the surgery wasn't easy. May, always a "pioneer in his heart," had never really felt he was missing anything in life. The surgery also had a few risks: the restoration of sight might only be temporary; the immunosuppressive drug was highly toxic; May might never adjust to the changes having sight would cause. Previously, patients had become depressed, their lives ruined because, while it might seem strange to sighted people, these patients found that the idea of vision was better than the reality. May went forward, only to find that, even though his eye was now perfect, his brain had forgotten how to process visual input. Fascinated by colors and patterns, he had difficulty discerning facial features, letters, even men from women. How May adjusts to his medical miracle, living with the disappointments as well as the joys, makes for a remarkable story of courage and endurance. (May 22)

Correction:
The price for Rickles' Book: A Memoir
by Don Rickles and David Ritz (Reviews, Apr. 2) is $24.

July 30, 2007
Christopher Evan Welch brings a tone of boyish wonder to the reading of Kurson's biography of Mike May, a highly successful entrepreneur, athlete, husband and father who undergoes experimental surgery to regain the vision that he lost in a chemical explosion at age three. When May chooses to pursue the risky procedure, he rejects the notion of blindness as an infirmity that requires healing. Instead, May views the restoration of sight as a new adventure to explore with the same gusto that he has demonstrated in all facets of life. Without pathos or pity, Welch vividly portrays May's challenge of processing the mental complexities of his newfound vision, including navigating the aisles of Costco and recognizing the gender of patrons at a neighborhood coffee bar. Some listeners may not fully embrace the stance of hearty stoicism, but others will be captivated by the decidedly nonmelodramatic perspective. As an added bonus, the audiobook includes an insightful follow-up interview between Kurson and May. Simultaneous release with the Random hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 16).

June 1, 2007
Best-selling author Kurson (Shadow Divers) introduces Michael May, who was blinded at age three by a chemical explosion but, through a revolutionary surgery, regained much of his vision at age 43. Raised to take risks and to experience the most in life, May was before the surgery a husband and father as well as an international traveler, a medal-winning downhill skier, and a budding entrepreneur. Although May's visual acuity is greatly restored by the surgery, his brain does not always know how to process the images he sees. Having never learned or needed the complexities of skills like depth perception and interpreting facial expressions, he struggles to identify people and objects that seemed obvious before he regained his sight. Kurson brilliantly depicts the good and the bad of May's experiences, from the wonder and delight of new sights that most of us take for granted to the frustration of being exhausted and overwhelmed by a torrent of undecipherable images. Readers will find this inspiring book derived from Kurson's National Magazine Awardwinning profile in Esquire hard to put down. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/07.]Tina Neville, Univ. of South Florida at St. Petersburg Lib.

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2007
By the time he turned44, Mike May had accomplished a lot. He had been an Olympic downhill skier and won three gold medals at the 1982Winter Games. He was an entrepreneur with a specialized portable GPS system under development. He had lived for a time in Ghana among the villagers of Kumbuli, helping them to build a schoolhouse. He had even worked briefly for the CIA. So when doctors offered May the opportunity to regain his eyesight via a risky corneal transplant, he took the chance of a lifetime. May had been blinded by a chemical explosion at the age of 3, and the operation would make him one of only60 documented cases of vision restoration after long-term blindness. The surgery proved successful, and Mays experience with his new eyesight was packed with adventureand difficulty. Kurson wrote the best-selling Shadow Divers (2004), about risk-taking deep-wreck divers. His latest offering documents a different kind of courage, asembodied by aman who was willing to take enormous risks on behalf of his curiosity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)