Oliver Sacks calls Alix Kates Shulman’s latest book “An extraordinary and important book.” I agree. To Love What Is is Shulman’s (author of Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen) account of a life-altering night when her beloved husband fell from their sleeping loft in their remote cabin in Maine. Many harrowing encounters with the health care system later…Shulman and her husband Scott find themselves in a new terrain of deep love, dramatically altered abilities, and of changed horizons of hope.
Shulman’s tale is elegantly and thoughfully told. A moment that stays with me is when she tells of her shock at a friend’s response to her situation. The minute they close the apartment door to embark on a walk together, her friend burst out with shock at Scott’s condition and at Shulman’s courage to keep him at home. Shulman honestly didn’t consider it a sacrifice. Why did her friend? Should she? They are deep and probing questions…explored by a deeply talented writer.
