Aug 26, 2024[This is one of the finalists in the 2024 book reviewcontest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous untilafter voting is done. I’ll be posting about one of these a week forseveral months. When you’ve read them all, I’ll ask you to vote fora favorite, so remember which ones you liked]Content warning: body horror, existential devastation, suicide.This book is an infohazard that will permanently alter your view ofparaplegia.For me, paraplegia and life itself are not compatible. Thisis not life, it is something else.In May of 2006, philosophy student Clayton Schwartz embarks on aPan-American motorcycle trip for the summer before law school. Heis 30 years old and in peak physical condition. He makes it as far south as Acapulco in Mexico before crashinginto a donkey that had wandered into the road. The impact crushes his spinal cord at the T5 vertebra, renderinghim paralyzed from the nipples down. On Sunday, February 24, 2008, he commits suicide.In the year and a half in between, he writes Two Arms and aHead, his combination memoir and suicide note. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-book-review-two-arms-and-a-head
