{ "item_title" : "A Nearly Normal Life", "item_author" : [" Charles L. Mee "], "item_description" : "During the early fifties, nothing seemed impossible. Therewasn't a problem that couldn't be solved, an enemy that couldn't be licked, a dream that couldn't be achieved. America believed this, and so did fourteen-year-old Charles Mee. A boy from a small Midwestern town, Mee believed in God, family, and his future, which, at the very least, included girls and a long spell as a hometown football hero. It wasn't until he collapsed one night at a dance that those dreams vanished. Polio was every American parent's nightmare; it struck ruthlessly every summer, and the fear of it was pervasive. Aside from Communism, polio was the great enemy- a rampant, contagious epidemic. Bizarre treatments emerged, and victims were subjected to pointless, painful therapies. Stories of children who, refusing to give up, conquered the disease by sheer willpower abounded. But most couldn't get much better and suffered the disappointing chill of doctors and families alike. Mee emerged from near death confronted by an enormous life change that challenged all the institutions he believed in. He was forced to redefine himself - a task requiring constant subterfuge. He was almost the same person as before; he was nearly normal. Through voracious reading, Mee discovered his intellectual precocity and his status as an outsider. Ultimately, he rejected the beliefs of his father, causing a lifelong estrangement. Polio has been a journey that brought Charles Mee to places he would never have otherwise gone - and to where he stands today. His consciousness as a man and a writer began the night he collapsed. In beautiful prose, he unravels the mysteries of his Cold War youth, voicing the mind of a child with a potentially fatal disease and of a man whose recognition of himself as a disabled outsider heightens his brilliance as a storyteller.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers2.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/31/655/836/0316558362_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "19.99", "online_price" : "19.99", "our_price" : "19.99", "club_price" : "19.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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