Newly married Robert McCrum was 42 and alone at home when he suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in 1995. His then-wife, an American journalist, was out of the country for work. He was found, of course—but not immediately—and promptly taken to hospital. His book seeks to detail the experience of the stroke itself, his deficits afterwards, who he was before, and the long, arduous recovery—if not of his former self, at least of a reasonable facsimile.

I read a fair ways into this book, but somehow could not become engaged by it. For me, this was due to the inclusion of so many journal entries from his wife and McCrum himself. Over and over again (as would be perfectly understandable in real life, of course) his wife wrote about her anxiety as to whether recovery was possible for Robert as well as her worry about what this meant for their married life. Apparently their union endured for some years, but I didn't read far enough to learn how. (The marriage subsequently faltered, though two daughters were produced before the divorce.)

In any case, I decided not to finish the memoir when the details (the worry, the anxiety, the frustration) just felt too repetitive. Also, the book felt sanitized and not quite honest. The blush of first love was still there and there were repeated (and what felt like forced) professions of carefully worded worry for each other. These insistent statements felt just slightly off and unnatural to me. It was as if both parties already knew the marriage wouldn’t endure and were trying to hide it from each other and themselves.

There is no doubt that a stroke, even one from which a person regains considerable function, places a huge toll on the patient’s family. A businessperson in our community had to retire early to care for a thirty-year-old son who had had a catastrophic stroke and who required heavy-duty care. I’ve also known a number of people, some of them quite young, who have experienced frightening transient ischemic attacks (mini strokes, in which parts of the brain are briefly deprived of blood and oxygen)—real wake-up calls.

I’m sorry that this book wasn’t quite what I thought it was going to be. ( )

Having suffered a stroke myself, aged 27 (half a lifetime ago), this book was particularly interesting and poignant. It took me back to my own struggles, physical and psychological, and the devastating effect it had on not only my life but my husband of 7 months. McCrum was one of the lucky ones - his marriage survived, but as he observed many don't and mine was one of those. However I was (am) fortunate that my physical recovery was about 95% - though no thanks to the NHS: in hospital for nearly 4 weeks then kicked out and left to my own devices to relearn to walk, talk and write. Could I drive? When should I return to work? What should I expect as I recover? As a private patient, McCrum's experience here was very different as he is well aware, but he describes so much that I remember: the inability to get a limb to respond, the enormous tiredness, the anger and frustration, the very great self-involvement.

I intend to recommend this book to my GP for any stroke patients she might have. Although it is particularly relevant to "young strokes" and their friends, family and carers, there is much that will inform anyone who has anything to do with stroke victims of any age. ( )

This book brought to mind Lee and Bob Woodruff's book, In an Instant, but there are, of course, differences. While Bob Woodruff was disabled by a roadside bomb in Iraq, Robert McCrum was laid low by a stroke at the age of forty-two, at a time when he and his wife Sarah had only been married a couple of months. McCrum characterizes his crippling stroke as a "biological car wreck." He tells in frank terms how devastating the stroke was, leaving most of his left side paralyzed and "frozen," and how hard it was to come back from it over the next year and more. But besides enumerating all the struggles and treatments involved in being rehabilitated, he also explores the way it forced him to rethink his life and way he viewed the world. The Woodruff book was often as much a love story as it was a story of treatment and therapy. The same is true with the McCrum story. One cannot help but feel an enormous admiration for McCrum in effecting his recovery from the stroke, but I was equally moved by the unstinting devotion and love showed by his still-new bride in her tireless efforts to fix her cruelly "broken" husband. After all, she hadn't signed on in the marriage to be a nurse and caregiver, but she didn't complain. She nursed, encouraged and - most of all - loved him. This is an inspirational story, and an extremely well-written one too. Both Bob Woodruff and Robert McCrum were extremely lucky in the unkind hands that fate dealt them. They had wives who loved them, and who proved it every day. I recommend this book, MY YEAR OFF, without reservations. It's a good one. ( )

Well, 5 months ago I had a "biological car crash" , as McCrum describes it. Mine was a little different in that mine was a stroke of the spinal column. A good friend sent me this book and while still in rehab, I decided to finish it this week to pass it on to someone else in a similar position. For the first time in rehab, I actually relaxed and lay in bed reading a book (My rehab is normally on the go trying to build strength endurance and recover mobility). I had read the first half slowley but the second half I found soothing and reassuring, I am due to go home at the end of this week and I am apprehensive about future challenges. This book if nothing else calmed me and gave me my most settled nights sleep in hospital I have had yet.. Many thanks McCrum. ( )

What sounded like a promising book rapidly became annoying. ( )