NO SPRING CHICKEN

A memoir of the author’s adventures living with a disability.

This latest nonfiction work from Falk-Allen is intended as a follow-up to her earlier memoir, Not a Poster Child: Living Well With a Disability—A Memoir (2018), which detailed her contending with the effects of polio. The author contracted the disease 70-plus years ago, when she was 3, and it left her somewhat disabled, with one leg far weaker than the other—but she didn’t let this hold her back. She’s visited large portions of the United States and many countries around the world. She’s taken small practical steps toward increasing her freedom, including having a left-foot–accelerator pedal installed in her car, and she’s also made her peace with the limitations imposed on her by her disability and by the passage of time. She used to be able to walk a mile or more with the aid of her cane, but, more recently, she found she tired far more easily and has adapted her travel plans accordingly. Part of her book is designed to encourage all of her readers—disabled or not—to go out and explore the wider world, hence the amount of practical advice in these pages (do your research, check for handicapped access, budget your funds, etc.). This advice is liberally mixed with Falk-Allen’s own travel stories and memories, which range from the picaresque to more expected travel notes. About Canada’s Victoria Island, for instance, she writes, “Anyone who loves gardens has absolutely got to see Butchart Gardens, which started about a century ago with a gift to Mrs. Butchart of a packet of sweet pea seeds and a rose bush.” In every piece of advice and every travel anecdote, readers are carried along by the author’s vigorous prose and enthusiasm. She looks squarely at the additional challenges handicapped people face when traveling and offers exuberant encouragement.

A fun, spirited book about traveling while handicapped.