Cockeyed: A Memoir

David E. Kemp is professor emeritus of drama at Queen’s University.

Ryan Knighton teaches contemporary literature and creative writing at
Capilano College in Vancouver. A former editor of The Capilano Review,
he has published poetry and short fiction, worked as a journalist, and
served as a producer, writer, and performer at the CBC.

On his 18th birthday, Knighton learned that he had Retinitis
Pigmentosa, a congenital, progressive disease that would lead to total
blindness. In this bold and irreverent memoir, he documents his 15-year
journey into the world of the unsighted. Without a hint of
sentimentality (a common pitfall of books dealing with disability), he
offers cogent and often startling insights not only into his own
condition but into the human condition in general as he details his life
experiences, from learning to drive while blind, to shopping at Ikea, to
teaching English in Korea, to finding romance with a deaf woman.

The author would probably reject such praise, but Cockeyed is a
wonderfully brave book.