Reviews for Cockeyed

The average rating for Cockeyed based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-12-26 00:00:00 Diego Argaez When Ryan Knighton was 18 and I was 14, we both worked at the same restaurant in Suburbia. He and the owner teased me their fair share and I loved it. When I saw Cockeyed on the Canada Reads 2012 list , I thought, hey, is this that, Ryan? Well, it is! Reading this was like a one-sided reunion. While for most people this is a "book about a blind guy", albeit a funny one, this was for me a life after Langley coming of age. When he talks about losing his shoe at a concert in Vancouver, I'm thinking, "hey, I remember where I was when Lush played the Commodore!" And on and on it went. We didn't keep in touch after that summer we worked together (I was 14, remember?) but I can hardly believe our paths didn't cross. We drank at the same pub (not while I was 14) and bought cheese at the same deli. 20 years ago Ryan was sharp, witty, poetic and insightful. This book says he still is. And it's worth reading even if he didn't intentionally mix hollandaise into the ash tray while you slaved in the dish pit way back when. Don't ask me, ask the CBC.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-10-07 00:00:00 Phil Laurin I found this memoir in the biographies section of an annual used book fair held in a local school. It sounded interesting to me because I don't know much about blindness or being blind and the cover promised that this would be a humorous account. What I found, however, was one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read. Ryan Knighton writes about how he began to lose his eyesight, how it affected his life and relationships and how he came to eventually accept his abilities. What I found particularly wonderful about this book was that it's not really a story about blindness but more a story of the life of a blind man. While Knighton's degenerating eye sight is central to the story, it often doesn't seem to be the most important bit. The experiences he's had, the people he's lost and his relationship with the people and world that surrounds him are also defining aspects of his life. Who doesn't share those same fundamentals? This book was everything it should be: inspiring (without pity), interesting, heart-warming and touching, enlightening and, most importantly, really quite funny. I'd recommend it to anyone looking to read a very human story.