Like Any Normal Day: A Story of Devotion
By Mark Kram
4/5
()
About this ebook
Winner of the 2013 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, Like Any Normal Day is a profound, powerful narrative of a golden boy's tragedy, a woman's unlived life, and a brother's complicated devotion.
In the mid-1970s, brothers Buddy and Jimmy Miley were close, both on the verge of impressive athletic careers. A promising high school quarterback, Buddy's potential was cut short by an injury that left him quadriplegic. Immobile and imprisoned in his body for decades, Buddy would watch life pass by from his wheelchair, living at home under his mother's and brother's care, and wondering what his life could have been.
Buddy and Jimmy visited special hospitals and traveled to Lourdes in search of a miracle, never losing hope as they searched for a cure. But as Buddy suffered increasing pain, and also realized that he would never be able to walk again—and never prove himself capable of being loved by Karen, a woman he'd first met in high school—he asked Jimmy to help him end his life.
Beautifully written, both heart-wrenching and hopeful, Mark Kram Jr.'s Like Any Normal Day explores the important bonds between families and the depths of what we're willing to do for those we love.
Like Any Normal Day is the winner of the 2013 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing.
Mark Kram
Mark Kram, Jr. won the 2013 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing for his first book, Like Any Normal Day: A Story of Devotion. Articles by him have appeared in The Best American Sports Writing and will be included in the forthcoming anthology, The Great American Sports Page. The Society of Professional Journalists honored him with the 2011 Sigma Delta Chi Award for feature writing. Formerly a sports writer in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Baltimore, he is the son of the late Mark Kram, the acclaimed journalist for Sports Illustrated and author of Ghosts of Manila: The Fateful Blood Feud between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. He has edited a collection of his father’s magazine pieces, Great Men Die Twice: The Selected Works of Mark Kram. He lives outside Philadelphia.
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Reviews for Like Any Normal Day
7 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This nonfiction story reads like a novel and has all the elements of great storytelling. Through the story of Buddy Miley and his devoted family, we are asked to consider such important themes as right of self-determination, self-sacrifice, and familial bonds. It's not a sports book but a family book, very well written by an award-winning journalist. Highly recommended.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Like Any Normal Day" is the story of Buddy Miley, an athletic teenager who got hurt playing football and was paralyzed. He persevered as long as he could and, then, made the decision to contact Dr. Jack Kevorkian and, with the doctor's assistance, die and end his pain and suffering. It's a compelling and thought-provoking story that will stay with you long after you finish the book.