This is less a book and more a kind of thumbnail treasury of rather random reflections from a remarkable human. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * This is less a book and more a kind of thumbnail treasury of rather random reflections from a remarkable human. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? This is less a book and more a kind of thumbnail treasury of rather random reflections from a remarkable human.
These are not essays: these are short (sometimes short-short) autobiographical vignettes, arranged quite sporadically, often seemingly illogically. Many are ironically amusing, others desperately sad — all are gently touching. David Roche, now 80 and, as of 2021, a fresh and sprightly member of the Order of Canada, announces on the first that he was born with a “vascular malformation” in his face that required intensive surgery and treatment as a wee child.
This all left him with what he now calls — with some mirth — a “pronounced facial difference.” Much of his biography, through early adulthood, amounted to a solitary struggle with that loud fact, with the deep shame of that difference and with the social oppressions that invariably accompanied it. Standing at the Back Door of Happiness A marked consequence of the haphazard structure of this compendium of snippets is that it’s difficult to discern specifics of chronology.
Sometime in his early-ish years (his late 20s? 30s?.