Helpful Score: 1
This is the incredible and heartwarming story of a trip from "almost dead" back to "normal" following a horrific car crash. Thankfully the book doesn't dwell too much on the medical details or the emotional roller coaster involved, although it doesn't trivialize them either. Instead the story has the ring of humor and positive attitude that so characterize Richard Hammond, while not avioding some of the truth of the narrowness of his escape and the hard work it took to return to everyday life. If you're a Top Gear fan, or just interested in how the brain heals, this is a great story. It has both love and pain. It is a story that Danielle Steele might have written, except that it really happened.
I was a fan of the BBC show Top Gear in which Richard Hammond is a presenter. I'm not into cars, but the chemistry between he and the other presenters, Jeremy Clarkson and James May, was so special it was like watching three kids with a toy. I said "was" because the three now have a new unnamed show on Amazon Prime. I had heard mentions of Richard's accident, and saw it on YouTube. Horrific. Both Richard and his wife, Mindy, are respected journalists. It isn't often you get the victim and the carer's experience with a head injury. Reading about the events from different points of view, makes you realize that head injuries are an injury while unseen from the outside, are taken for granted if the person recovers that they are "well" and if not a vegetable. An excellent book for a wide ranging audience.
