Amazon.co.uk Review
The same sharp intelligence and self-deprecating wit that made Michael J Fox a star in the
Spin City television series and
Back to the Future films make
Lucky Man a lot punchier than the usual up-from-illness celebrity memoir.
Yes, he begins with the first symptoms of Parkinson's disease, the incurable illness that led to his retirement from Spin City (and acting) in 2000. And yes, he assures us he is a better, happier person now than he was before he was diagnosed. In Fox's case, you actually might believe it, because he then cheerfully exposes the insecurities and self-indulgences of his pre-Parkinson's life in a manner that makes them not glamorous but wincingly ordinary and of course very funny. ("As for the question, 'Does it bother you that maybe she just wants to sleep with you because you're a celebrity?' My answer to that one was, 'Ah... nope.'")
From a Canadian, working-class background, Fox has an unusually detached perspective on the madness of mass-media fame; his description of the tabloid feeding-frenzy surrounding his 1988 wedding to Tracy Pollan, for example, manages to be both acid and matter-of-fact. He is frank but not maudlin about his drinking problem, and he refreshingly notes that getting sober did not automatically solve all his other problems. This readable, witty autobiography reminds you why it was generally a pleasure to watch Fox on screen: he's a nice guy with an edge, and you don't have to feel embarrassed about liking him. --Wendy Smith
Review
Michael J Fox found fame in the Eighties in the Back to the Future movie franchise; in the Nineties he starred in the hit US TV show Spin City; and for most of his career he kept secret his illness: Parkinson's Disease. These memoirs do not recount the usual Hollywood tale of stardom won, lost and won again (clearing up after the chemical implosion, the basic recovery narrative), but deliver a less common tale of consistent professional accomplishment achieved against the odds. But Parkinson's is predominantly a late-life ailment and Lucky Man is therefore inescapably a bad luck story: in medical history the recovery chapter for Parkinson's is still unwritten. But the retired actor turned author has turned terminal misfortune to good use, not least by writing a book that demonstrates that even sickness can be a gift when an attempt is made to understand it properly. A unique book about a far from unique predicament.
by Michael J. Fox
by Christopher Reeve
by Deborah W. Brooks
