The Coward

I knew nothing about this book. I only started reading it because of the Irvine Welsh plaudit on the front. I thought it might be interesting. I'd worked in spinal as a student and enjoyed it. I'd seen the strength needed to accept your new self. I'd watched people struggle. I thought I knew it all.
I wasn't expecting to get so emotionally involved. I didn't expect to read the last few pages through a blur of tears.
It's not a memoir, I thought it was when I realised the protagonist was called Jarred McGinnis. But it's not the author.
The fictionalising of the author isn't new, it's been done well and badly by better and worse than McGinnis. But it's a bold move for a debut novel. I think it worked well. To paraphrase McGinnis (the author) if someone in a wheelchair writes about a guy ending up in a wheelchair everyone is going to assume it's about him. May as well jump right into it and name that protagonist after yourself. Whatever.
It's a good story, he writes well and is engaging. And it made me cry, not many books do that to me. I'd recommend it to anyone and look forward to reading more of his writing.