I didn’t have any particular reason to pick up this book, other than my love of memoirs. I’d only ever seen Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, and I only knew 2 things about him:
First, he was older than he looked while filming Back to the Future.
Second, he has Parkinson’s disease.
But I like learning about what life is like from different perspectives, so I figured I’d give Always Looking Up a chance.
Always Looking Up is Fox’s second memoir. I haven’t read the first, but it sounds like the first one is a more chronological memoir about his life from childhood to stardom and beyond. This one is organized by topics, and it focuses mostly on the things he’s done since his diagnosis to combat Parkinson’s
There’s a lot of content about his foundation, as well as his experience getting involved politically to advocate stem cell research.
One thing I valued from this book was the opportunity to hear about a political topic from a viewpoint that I don’t have. Fox and I have differing political opinions, but it was nice to be able to hear his viewpoint from his perspective rather than from somebody else trying to tear it down (I’m looking at you talk radio).
If nothing else, it’s an opportunity to see that the majority of people are trying to do what they feel is best for others. Not many people are actively trying to pursue a course of action that will knowingly harm other people. But, for some reason, we treat anybody with differing opinions as if they’re the enemy.
Other than that, I don’t feel the book offered much. I’m glad I read it, but I don’t think I’m ever going to have a reason to reread it.
Denver Nay Blogs 