Helen Keller's autobiography, The Story of My Life is a selection later this year for one of my book clubs, so I'm digging in now. I haven't gotten very far, in fact her teacher and friend Anne Sullivan has just arrived on the scene.
Her tone is surprisingly casual about everything. Like, "Yeah, so I went blind and deaf, but anyway..."
The image I always have of her is the epic food fight she and Anne Sullivan have in the movie The Miracle Worker. Keller, in my mind, was a child who was the absolute picture of brattiness. Understandably so, considering she could not properly communicate with those around her. But her own account makes it sound as if her tantrums were not much worse than those of normal children, or at least normal children with really bad tempers. I should know, I was one.
Having only encountered Keller through the parts I've seen of the movie and the basic knowledge that most people have of her story, I was pleasantly surprised by her autobiography. She has an engaging voice and the book has made her more real to me than anything else I've ever heard or seen about her.
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