Double Take, A Memoir by Kevin Michael Connolly (pp 227). This memoir is largely built around a photography project best described by the author: “This photography has allowed me to use my leglessness as a way to create an art project that otherwise would have been impossible to create.” The genesis of the photography was an attempt to capture photos of the almost inevitable downward-looking stares Connolly endured while moving about the world. The author’s reaction to being the object of pity, curiosity, and confusion ranged from understanding to annoyance to anger. Not until he found himself in Sarajevo staring at a man with missing limbs from war, finding himself silently asking “what the happened to him?” did he second guess his motivations for his project. This memoir has no neat wrap up, concluding epiphany, or insight into the human condition. Rather, it tells the story of a person born without legs and his experiences dealing with virtually everyone around him (except family) who considered him handicapped. Importantly, it is not what some people call inspiration porn, i.e. an inspirational story based on a person’s disability. It is about family, competition, love, travel, and growing up: the stuff of life. In fact, it’s not overtly inspiring, so don’t read it if you want to get a golden glow of goodness.

Spoiler alert: in the end he does NOT get the girl. Again, the stuff of life. ( )

A memoir of a guy born with no legs riding around foreign countries on his skate board taking pictures of people staring at him...I really did not find much to take away from this experience. ( )

A memoir of a guy born with no legs riding around foreign countries on his skate board taking pictures of people staring at him...I really did not find much to take away from this experience. ( )

Born without legs, Kevin Michael Connolly has seen the world from a customized “MacGuyvered” seat on a skateboard. From his home in Helena, Montana, Connolly traveled the United States to compete in mono-ski races and eventually traveled abroad as a student and photographer. After spending twenty years as the object of other people’s stares, Connolly turned the tables by stealthily photographing people staring at him—doing the double take he learned was the most common reaction to seeing a legless guy rolling around on a skateboard—and came to understand human nature and his own perspective on disabilities in the process.

Double Take is a candid, often humorous memoir that provides a glimpse into a very unique life. Connolly writes openly about his childhood, his parents’ creative adaptations to his disability, and his experiences with dating and relationships, exploring the ways in which being legless made even the most mundane experiences remarkable. ( )