Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox

Like most people who grew up in the 80's, I feel an attachment to Michael J. Fox that continues, even though he effectively left the public eye several years ago. So when a copy of his memoir, Lucky Man, appeared on a "free books" table at my church, I gladly grabbed it.

The memoir focuses on the time between his diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease and the effective "end" of his career-- that point when he retired from regular work on TV and in the movies and retreated from public life. Along the way, however, Fox recaps most of the rest of his life: we learn about his childhood and family, read of his early experience in acting and performance, and trace his acting career from the earliest success through the difficult years and into the stretch of success that most of us remember him the most for: Family Ties, the Back to the Future series, and a handful of other early movies.

I first realized the true star-potential and acting prowess of Michael J. Fox when I saw him in the movie Light of Day, an obscure and relatively unsuccessful endeavor with, of all people, Joan Jett; Fox was both believable and moving as a struggling musician with a blue-collar day job who was trying to keep his sister out of trouble and his nephew from being parent-less. "If he can pull that role off," I thought then, "he can play about anything." Fox's career is impressive from my memory alone, but reading about it in detail made it that much more impressive. There were a handful of movies (and even a couple of TV appearances) that I had forgotten, didn't remember him having a part in, or simply didn't know about. These, added to the many that I DID remember,

These parts of the book-- tracing the life and times of Michael J. Fox-- were interesting and fun, both because of the intrigue of celebrity that is, in spite of my fighting against it, inherent to me because I am an American, and because Fox is a surprisingly great writer. He is both an accomplished storyteller and a master of the English language, and these combine to full effect in
Lucky Man.

If that were all that the book is about, it would simply be another celebrity biography, albeit a well-written one. But the focus of the book is more intense, more important, and more promising than that: Fox wants to tell us about his struggles with the diagnosis of Parkinson's. The rest is simply context.

Lucky Man is also well written in this way. It would be easy for Fox to write a "pity me" tale or a "why are you an activist?" brow-beater. But this book is neither. What is does do is represent the real struggles that everyone has as they wrestle with this diagnosis-- and by telling that story truthfully, Fox makes it a little easier for the rest of the Parkinson's world to face it honestly as well. By his example, leadership, and influence, the Parkinson's community can follow him "out of the closet" in toward genuine progress.

Another worthy side-effect of the book is that Fox gives a peek inside the reality of being a high-profile celebrity. Through his accounts we learn of the benefits that celebrity brings-- those things that the rest of us, assuming that they would be glorious, sniff about, saying, "it must be nice." It is nice, Fox says, but let me tell you the rest of it: the fantasy world that I live in will end, either by my choice or by force of nature. Through Fox's vulnerability, it is easy to understand why so many celebrities struggle with problems of alcoholism, drug addiction, and simple relational ineptness. And he successfully debunks many of the myths of celebrity in the process.

In the end, Fox considers himself to be the true Lucky Man-- not because of his success, however, but in spite of it, and because of the realities he has learned since diagnosis. He says:

"The ten years since my diagnosis have been the best ten years of my life, and I consider myself a lucky man."

I agree.