Cons: You won't agree with everything he says, but isn't that a given?
The Bottom Line: Good book on what it is like to live with MS. If that remotely interests you, this is a good book. Even if it doesn't, you might find it revealing.
seether166's Full Review: Montel Williams and Lawrence Grobel - Climbing Hig...
Apparently this is Montel Williams’ second book, but I was unaware of that until I read the “Forward” of this one. I’m glad I chose this one to pick up though, because it is a very in depth glance of who he is as a person. He says himself in the “Forward,” that in his first book, “...my intention was to be motivational, not self-revealing. I wasn’t even 20% open as I am in this one.” His openness and character as a person are full detailed in this book.
I can easily say that any reader of this book would feel like they knew the real Montel Williams. My knowledge of him prior to this book was limited at best. I remember hearing him talk on his talk show once about how he felt mandatory military service was a good thing, an idea I agree with. Aside from that though, I didn’t have much exposure to him since I’m not a fan of talk shows.
A brief history of Williams is that he was born into less than desirable economic and racial conditions. He was constantly reminded that he was a black man in America. However, rather than be bitter about it, he strove to be that much better. He went into the Navy and was in for over ten years as an intelligence officer. He ended up being a motivational speaker, and left the Navy to start his talk show. Lastly, and most importantly, he was diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis).
The book focuses mainly on what it is like to live with MS, how it affects your day-to-day life, your relationships, and your emotional standing. For someone such as Williams, who prided himself on being an athlete and physically fit, it is especially hard. One of the things he addresses, which I believe took a lot of courage, was how he wanted to, and attempted to, end his life shortly after being diagnosed. Suicide is not something most people can talk about with even their friends, let alone share in a national book.
Williams is also extremely candid about how having MS affects his relationship with the opposite sex. He details how a person with MS will often times not share the pain they are in with their partner, for a variety of reasons. In almost all cases, this leads to the dissolution of those relationships. Once again, he courageously details the problems MS causes in his sex life.
Some other issues that Williams addresses are those of race and medical marijuana. The former is addressed pervasively through the book. While to some extent that annoyed me, I understand he was born in another time. If I grew up as he was, I would be jaded in that regard too. The latter is another issues which took a lot of fortitude to take a stand on in such a public forum, being such a respected public figure to begin with.
Overall, the book is a very interesting portrait of what it is like to live with MS. MS is clearly the main focus of the book, and is further augmented by the interviews he has with several doctors at the end of the book. He brings to light how there is very little consistency on how the medical community views the causes of MS, let alone the treatments.
When I picked up the book, I had very little knowledge of MS, nor any interest in it. After having read it, I feel I can empathize with what it must be like to live with such a debilitating disease. The ways in which Williams express himself deserve a lot of credit too. There are some cases where I felt annoyed with some of the things he said, and other cases where I empathized with him fully. But that’s to be expected from anyone who fully reveals themselves. We never fully agree with someone else, but can only hope to understand them. In this regard, I think Williams achieves this completely in his book.
In this intimate and inspiring memoir, the Emmy( Award-winning talk show host reveals how his shocking 1999 diagnosis of multiple sclerosis changed hi...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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