Christy Brown: The Life that Inspired My Left Foot

by Georgina Louise Hambleton

Book Overview

Christy Brown was severely disabled from birth with cerebral palsy and unable to use any part of his body other than his left foot. Doctors said he was a mental defective and that he would never be... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 184596280X
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.1" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Filled in all I wanted to know about Christy Brown

The first seventy five pages of Christy Brown: The Life that Inspired My Left Foot is a repetition of the autobiography My Left Foot plus some new additional information. But that doesn't mean you should skip the original because it is quite good. Then Georgina Louise Hambleton adds a lot more of details about Christy Brown the rest of the way due to the premature end of My Left Foot since it was completed in 1954. The last two chapters before the ending chapter of Christy Brown: The Life that Inspired My Left Foot are bonuses because the reader gets to know how the film My Left Foot was made including how Daniel Day-Lewis was able to achieve the character of Christy Brown through his award winning performance. Too bad that not enough is written about Hugh O'Conor (if you are not sure who is that, he is the kid who played Christy Brown before Daniel Day-Lewis took over). Now for the biography of Christy Brown, I honestly had mixed feelings about the man himself. I really did enjoy his autobiography because it reminded me of how Helen Keller described her struggles and her breakthrough to the world in her book The Story of My Life. After Christy Brown had managed to overcome the obstacles of his disability, he seemed to have wasted his life away for good ole Irish whiskey and excessive partying. It is not much of a fun to constantly read about it while he keeps yearning to be the next James Joyce (or for us Americans, F. Scott Fitzgerald). In a way, Christy Brown resembles as a "wannabe," trying to emulate an Irishman as much as possible through his curses, drinking, and mannerisms. On the other hand, except for My Left Foot, I can't comment about his literary work because I haven't read any of it, but the fact that his mostly out of print books are not held in esteem in literary circles seems to say something (Georgina Louise Hambleton makes a mention of this fact too but urges anyone to take his work seriously). That's pretty much it about Christy Brown: The Life that Inspired My Left Foot, and I am not kidding. So, my recommendation for you is to borrow the book from the library instead of buying it because Christy Brown: The Life that Inspired My Left Foot is literally a "one-time" read and nothing more. The fact that I gave it a full five-star rating is because Georgina Louise Hambleton fulfilled my curiosity of Christy Brown and what happened to him after all those years. There is a quite shocking truth at the time of his death in 1981. Having to think of that and the way Christy Brown lived his life, I feel like that he disrespected his mother and the others who have helped Christy to be where he was. I know everybody has the right to live the way they want to live, but it is really disappointing. All in all, Christy Brown: The Life that Inspired My Left Foot is a good read and will satisfy your need to know all there is about Christy Brown. And I am going to make sure to read his Down All the Days in the future and post what I think of it.

An amazing life and an amazing book

This is a great read. The author uses interviews with Brown's siblings and friends as well as his private letters and unpublsihed works. His childhood, and its challenges - handled so admirably by his mother - are evoked beautifully. It will make you laugh and make you cry. The book is also a must for Day-Lewis addicts as the author interviews people who worked with him on the film (including Christy Brown's brothers and sisters), and has some great stories therein. Overall, this is a wonderful book about a man who overcame the odds, beginning with so little - but led a life most of us could only imagine living - Brilliant.