Leg: The Story of the Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It by Greg Marshall

 Sunday, July 23, 2023--San Antonio

Leg:  The Story of the Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It by Greg Marshall is a memoir.  I had almost given up on memoirs because of how uninteresting the last 3 or 4 of them I started reading were.  The reviews for this one were so great, that I gave it a chance.  I'm so glad I did.  It is so often hilarious that I enjoyed guffawing frequently!  The reason that "Limb" is in the title is because the protagonist has born prematurely with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck resulting in him having cerebral palsy.  But his family never told him that was why his right leg was shorter and less muscular than his left one; they just told him he had tight tendons.  Therefore, Greg grew up limping but not aware of the cause of his handicap.  His outlook on life was mostly positive even if he was shy.  The best parts of the book are the first third or so of it when he is still a boy growing up in Utah in a non-Mormon family and the last fifth of it when he is trying to find love while being handicapped in two ways. (Keep reading to learn how.) But there are other complications in his life:  His mother develops lymphoma and spends decades fighting it.  His father develops Lou Gehrig's disease and dies at 55.  Added to that, as Greg goes through puberty, he comes to realize that he is gay and that his penis is affected by the CP disease causing him to suffer from partial erectile dysfunction.  His mother, although ill with cancer, is a force to be reckoned with.  His father, is like a saint in the way he protects his son and accepts him with his handicap and his being gay.  And Greg, who has to figure out on his own what having "tight tendons" truly means medically as a young adult, has to, once he is an adult, come out TWICE (as having cerebral palsy and as being gay) to everyone in his life.  Throughout it all, he is delightfully funny.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.