We go from the depths of despair, with Fox submerged in the tub in a dark and lonely bathroom, the only place he finds solace from jerking joints and a non-understanding rest of the world, to the heights of fame on the Emmy stage, all the while being kept aware that somewhere a hand is shaking or a leg twitching. His story is an engaging read, especially for fellow PD sufferers as it brings the disease into the public forum, but also as a story of accepting the challenges life affords. Fox has something to say and he says it, in a thrifty 260 pages. All the necessary talk of life on the set and behind the scenes of Family Ties is there, as well as few celebrity stories, such as a night out with Princess Diana and a cutting interlude with Cher. Though he may be known primarily for his work as actor, movies and movie making are not why Fox put pen to paper. In Lucky Man, Fox effectively enables his readers to understand many of the problems facing himself and other Parkinson’s Disease patients, from the debilitating physical effects of the disease to the amazing inner support of the PD community.įox’s book is not just another Hollywood cry for attention hidden in the form of an autobiography.

Three years later, this ongoing story takes a new turn for his admirers, from discovery and a sense of mourning for Fox to feeling empowered by his emotional leap from despair to acceptance. Walters told the apprehensive Fox that the public’s right to know was about more than just “morbid curiosity,” and offered the encouragement that “people care about youthis is a learning experience for everyone.”Īnd she was right. Fox revealed to the public that for the past seven years, he’d been suffering from Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease. Though People magazine broke the story not long before, it was during an interview with Barbara Walters in 1998 that Michael J. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to idenitify ourselves as citizens of that other place.”

Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. “Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship.

Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox