cover image Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence

Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence

John Hockenberry. Hyperion Books, $24.45 (371pp) ISBN 978-0-7868-6078-4

In 1976, Hockenberry was left a paraplegic after an auto accident and has now spent half his life in a wheelchair, a ``crip,'' as he puts it. After college, he worked for National Public Radio for 12 years and in 1993 joined TV's Day One as a reporter and commentator. His account of life as a handicapped American at home and abroad should interest all. A realist, he has long since recovered from any self-pity and chronicles the gamut of reactions he has encountered in his native land, ranging from averted heads to staring to moist eyes to the opinion-expressed not to him but to his relatives-that if he wanted to commit suicide, people would understand. He now feels closer to other minorities of ``walled-in ethnic, racial and economic enclaves,'' sympathizing with their pain and their rage. He conveys as few other writers have the anomalous position of being the insider who is also an outsider. Author tour. (July)