Disability in fiction

GCU_Dramatic Exit · Jun 26, 2011

Hi

I'm just wondering if anyone has any good recommendations of novels where the main character has a disability. It can be either physical or mental. I want to diversify my reading and I don't often see protagonist who have a disability.

thanks!

shelleyo · Jun 26, 2011

I've only read one of them, and in that one the character only made a brief appearance, but the Lincoln Rhyme novels by Jeffrey Deaver feature Rhyme, a quadriplegic. I thought the book was okay, not great, but the series is wildly popular.

Shelley

Maryn · Jun 26, 2011

Deaver's "The Bone Collector" is a good first step. The main character is quadriplegic. (Don't see the movie first. It might be wise not to see it at all.)

There was a trend in mystery in the 90s to have a disability be the 'thing' which distinguished a novel or series from its competitors. There were detectives, professional and amateur, who were wheelchair-bound, morbidly obese, one-armed, deaf, bipolar, clinically depressed, narcoleptic, and every other kind of disability. It seemed so gimmicky that I didn't read them, even though at the time I read a lot of mystery. I'm sure if you want to explore that further, others here can give you titles.

Maryn, who'll see if she can think of others

Mr Flibble · Jun 26, 2011

Depends if you're picky about genre.

I've written a fantasy with a protag with a paralysed arm (Love is My Sin) which is a bind when you're a warrior...

Not a POV character, I don't think, but Opposite Bastard by Simon Packham has a quadriplegic as a main character. Disclaimer: I haven't read the book, but my son adores this guy's YA.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

The Secret Garden?

Vito · Jun 26, 2011

The novel Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg features a protagonist suffering from both physical and mental disabilities caused by his military service during the Vietnam War. It's set in seaside Santa Barbara, California during the mid-1970s.

I haven't read the book, so I can't recommend it. But I really like the 1981 film version starring Jeff Bridges and John Heard, titled "Cutter's Way". The movie (and the book as well, I assume) can be taken both as a murder mystery and as a political commentary on 20th century American ideals and values.

I recently learned that the book is back in print and fairly easy to find, so I'll probably read it within the next few months. Til then, you might want to check out the movie -- Heard and Bridges are pretty impressive as the disabled veteran and his loyal longtime friend.

Fade · Jun 26, 2011

I just finished Accidents of Nature about a camp for kids with disabilities. It's first person narrated by a girl with cerebral palsy. I liked it, though if you don't like YA it's probably not what your looking for.

scarletpeaches · Jun 27, 2011

Maryn said:
Deaver's "The Bone Collector" is a good first step. The main character is quadriplegic. (Don't see the movie first. It might be wise not to see it at all.)

Denzel and Angelina? Hell yeah!

I know Lesley Pearse wrote a novel where the male love interest had a false leg. He unscrewed it before screwing the heroine. Sexy... :ROFL:

shelleyo · Jun 27, 2011

scarletpeaches said:
Denzel and Angelina? Hell yeah!

I know Lesley Pearse wrote a novel where the male love interest had a false leg. He unscrewed it before screwing the heroine. Sexy...

My ex-husband had to remove his prosthetic leg before bed, or having sex in most positions. It didn't detract from anything.

Shelley

Adam · Jun 27, 2011

My WIP has a one armed woman in it (fantasy, no prosthetic). Be a while afore it's out, though. :tongue

Maryn · Jun 27, 2011

scarletpeaches said:
Denzel and Angelina? Hell yeah!

No, no, and no. Race matters in the novel, and the casting of Washington (a first-rate actor, IMO) simply did not work for me.

Sounds like it worked for you, though, eh? I'll take Training Day instead.

Maryn, winking

scarletpeaches · Jun 27, 2011

I've never read the book, Maryn, so I'm uninfluenced by it. (I know, I know...I can only apologise for breaking my own book first, then movie rule. I'm ashamed.)

Maryn · Jun 27, 2011

[Apologies in advance for further derailing.] That's my usual rule, too, book before movie, but it happens fairly often that I had no idea there even was a book until I saw the movie. That happened this past weekend with a movie we watched in a hotel, sharing a bottle of wine. The movie was flawed, but the story was interesting enough that I jotted down the author's name.

[Back on track.] I thought of another disability series, BTW. The Song of Ice and Fire series, starting with Game of Thrones, has numerous characters who are disfigured, dwarves, amputees, and such. Most are supporting characters, but not all, and some become disabled in the course of the series, so I won't say more lest I spoil something.

Maryn, not usually a fantasy reader

Kitty Pryde · Jul 2, 2011

This Alien Shore
The Speed of Dark
Crystal Rain
The Scar
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (YA novel but well worth reading for anybody who likes really good books!)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Stones From The River

If you like YA or MG novels, I can recommend mmmmmmmmany more of those.

Bookewyrme · Jul 2, 2011

Let's see, if you like fantasy and don't mind a bit of risque content, then Elizabeth Lynn's Dancers of Arun is about a one-armed man who is a scribe in a world where scribes generally need two hands.
Sci-fi there's Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, which is a rather long series about a man who was born with terrible deformities and frailties (he eventually has to have all of his bones surgically replaced to avoid breaking them all again) in a culture that's soldier-obsessed, and terrified of mutations.
In Louisa May Alcott's book Little Women, one of the four sisters falls seriously ill with scarlet fever part-way through the book, and never quite recovers.

Those are all the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Lady Ice · Jan 3, 2012

IdiotsRUs said:
The Secret Garden?

The Secret Garden's not about disability that much. Colin's disability is mainly psychosomatic.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a classic, though creepy, example.

dolores haze · Jan 3, 2012

'Should We Drown in Feathered Sleep' by Michael Merriam. A sci fi/fantasy novella, has a tough disabled heroine wheeling herself around a post-apocalyptic landscape.

Disability in fiction

GCU_Dramatic Exit

shelleyo

Just another face in a red jumpsuit

Maryn

I Tried

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Vito

Recalled to life

Fade

The Captain of My Soul

scarletpeaches

shelleyo

Just another face in a red jumpsuit

Adam

Not dead.

Maryn

I Tried

scarletpeaches

Maryn

I Tried

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

Bookewyrme

Imagined half of it.

Lady Ice

Makes useful distinctions

dolores haze

international guttersnipe