Look Ma, No HandsLook Ma, No Hands

"A humorous, charming, profound debut memoir about chronic pain, accessibility, and young adulthood, by an acclaimed essayist and cartoonist. In 2020, Gabrielle Drolet developed a condition that made her unable to use her hands. It only worsened over time, and as a writer and artist, she had to learn new ways of creating and expressing herself. She placed her first cartoon in The New Yorker--and then was unable to draw for a full year. She has since found ways around this using graphic design software, exercises, and many, many breaks, but the experience has completely changed her life. In Look Ma, No Hands, Gabrielle explores both the difficulty and the humour of developing chronic and life-altering pain in her twenties. Each chapter looks at a different aspect of her life touched by her disability--how she learned to write when she couldn't type, to cook when she couldn't chop, to assemble IKEA furniture when she couldn't twist an Allen key. She breaks up with her girlfriend and has to figure out how to manage the most mundane tasks without anyone to help her. She moves cities and has to navigate different Byzantine health systems without the privilege or security of having a family doctor. And yet, through it all, she manages to maintain the most wonderful sense of the absurd. Rich with profound reflections on life's curve balls, Look Ma, No Hands is a joy to read, relatable, and the work of a rising new talent."--