by Robert Kurson
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Product Description
In his critically acclaimed bestseller Shadow Divers, Robert Kurson explored the depths of history, friendship, and compulsion. Now Kurson returns with another thrilling adventure–the stunning true story of one man’s heroic odyssey from blindness into sight.
Mike May spent his life crashing through. Blinded at age three, he defied expectations by breaking world records in downhill speed skiing, joining the CIA, and becoming a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and family man. He had never yearned for vision.
Then, in 1999, a chance encounter brought startling news: a revolutionary stem cell transplant surgery could restore May’s vision. It would allow him to drive, to read, to see his children’s faces. He began to contemplate an astonishing new world: Would music still sound the same? Would sex be different? Would he recognize himself in the mirror? Would his marriage survive? Would he still be Mike May?
The procedure was filled with risks, some of them deadly, others beyond May’s wildest dreams. Even if the surgery worked, history was against him. Fewer than twenty cases were known worldwide in which a person gained vision after a lifetime of blindness. Each of those people suffered desperate consequences we can scarcely imagine.
There were countless reasons for May to pass on vision. He could think of only a single reason to go forward. Whatever his decision, he knew it would change his life.
Beautifully written and thrillingly told, Crashing Through is a journey of suspense, daring, romance, and insight into the mysteries of vision and the brain. Robert Kurson gives us a fascinating account of one man’s choice to explore what it means to see–and to truly live.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Another outstanding read, 2008-08-14
Crashing through is Kurson's second book. His first book, Shadow Divers, is a must read for all men. 'Crashing Through' is very well written and educates the reader about sight, seeing, and all that goes into that complicated process as well as describes the heroic life of one who moves from blindness to sightedness. I enjoyed the history and education of the various medical approaches to sight and what it was like for one to have lived in both worlds The book moves quickly, keeps the readers attention,
as well as educates.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
What would you do?, 2008-05-04
What would you do if you had been blind since you were three years old, and forty-two years later an ophthalmologist told you that there was a new form of stem cell surgery that could restore your vision? Would you do it? If you had never seen your children and spouse, and this new procedure could give you a chance to see them, would you take the chance? Does the question sound like an easy one to answer? What if you were happy with your life, even doing such activities as downhill skiing, and hiking alone in the woods, and you were told that there were some possible serious risks to the procedure? After the surgery you may find that it is difficult to adjust to the new sight, your sight may not allow you to see in a normal way, and you could again loose your sight at any time. Even more worrisome is that the drug that you would have to take was highly toxic and could possible cause cancer, would the risk be worth it? These are all things that Michael May had to think about as he pondered the idea, should he try this new procedure? I won't spoil the book for you by telling you how things turn out for May, but as you read this book, you will experience his struggles, his highs, and his disappointments. This is a fascinating true story, that also taught me things about sight that I had never known or thought much about before.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Drudgery, 2008-02-22
I really wanted to like this book, but Crashing Through turned into drudgery about half way through the story. The story is about Mike May, a blind man from a very young age, and his decision to have a surgery that allows him to see again. Mike's whole life is portrayed, and while it is interesting, it is not altogether fascinating. What is really compelling is what will happen to Mike after he has the surgery. Unfortunately, it is precisely at this moment that the book lost its appeal for me. The author quickly turns to describing the minutiae of May's daily life and what it's like to see ordinary things for the first time. After reading page after page of this, I finally gave up and stopped reading.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Crashing into obstacles, 2008-02-19
The disturbing image of the youthful Michael May running blind and crashing into schoolyard goalposts remained with me throughout my reading of this book. I was disappointed by the presentation and was not all that enamoured of the protagonist himself. Make no mistake, his sporting achievements were impressive. However, his incessant bragging about his attractive wife could only make me smirk at the irony of a blind man obsessed with female pulchritude. Using his new eyesight to leer at the girls walking past a local coffeeshop was just plain juvenile! Yes it's true he never got a chance to do this during his immature teenager years, but still. The book was dull and boring when I had expected so much more; the writing was pedestrian and cliched. This could have been so much better. The most meaningful part of the biography was May's struggle to achieve Olympic records in downhill skiing. He seems to have dared so much more before he "dared to see".
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Exploding Crayons, 2008-02-09
You're unlikely to come across another story like this any time soon. Kurson delivers the story of Mike May, one of only 20 cases in recorded history of a person losing sight in early childhood only to recover vision as an adult.
In his early forties, May lives an active life as a fully fuctioning professional and family man when a chance encounter with an optometrist affords him the opportunity to try a rare, cutting-edge procedure to regain vision. The surgeries are a success and May sees his children and wife for the first time.
Even more fascinating is May's subsequent struggle to adjust to this new way of living. He sees colors and can follow motion normally, but the details of vision (that Kurson tells us we process and learn in early childhood) aren't there. Seeing for him is like every moment try to speak a foreign language - it's exhausting and painstaking work even for a man so doggedly determined as May.
Kurson's use of language is as brilliant as the story itself. He seemlessly guides us from a way of living without our primary sense to the brilliance of recovering it in adulthood.
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