Andrew Leland
“If we could remove the misperceptions people have about blindness—the image of it as a place of fear, claustrophobia, infantilization, and fundamental otherness—the landscape would begin to look very different. The two worlds would cease to feel so distinct, and their overlapping zones would grow. Ultimately, they’d have to yield and concede and share territory. The blind belong to our world, and we belong to theirs. It’s the same world.”
“In The Country of the Blind, Andrew Leland tells the story of his gradual transition into the blindness community with sensitivity and insight. He vividly describes his new sensory perceptions and emotions and outlines controversies about the training of the blind. His experiences will resonate powerfully with those in the autism community and beyond. A valuable book.”
“After reading Andrew Leland’s memoir, The Country of the Blind, you will look at the English language differently . . . Leland rigorously explores the disability’s most troubling corners . . . A wonderful cross-disciplinary wander.”
“[Leland’s] education in navigating the world without his eyes is an entry point into a fascinating cultural history of blindness. The great strength of this memoir is its voracious, humble curiosity; throughout, Leland treats losing his vision as just as much an opportunity as a foreclosure.”
“Leland delivers a masterful exploration of disability in his brilliant debut . . . Enriched by its sparkling prose, this is an extraordinary and intellectually rigorous account of adapting to change.”
Andrew Leland is the author of The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight (Penguin Press, 2023), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Memoir/Autobiography. It was named a best book of the year by The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and others. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s Quarterly, and The San Francisco Chronicle, among other outlets. From 2013-2019, he hosted and produced The Organist, an arts and culture podcast, for KCRW; he has also produced pieces for Radiolab and 99 Percent Invisible.
He was asked in an interview how his thoughts have changed regarding the degrees of importance people assign to different senses: “Our brains are wonderfully multimodal in their apprehension of the world. What we might experience as a purely visual activity—looking for a cup of coffee on the table, for instance—actually contains a great deal of information beyond sight. We’re gathering tactile cues (fingers brushing the table as they move toward the hot cup), auditory signals (the clink of a fingernail as it connects with the ceramic mug), even olfactory indicators (the steam rising off the coffee). I’ve had to turn up these nonvisual channels as my vision has gradually turned down. Looking for a cup with my fingers might strike an onlooker as a fumbling way of going about things, but one quickly grows accustomed to it. It’s not a magical blind tactile adventure; I’m just finding the cup like I always have, albeit in a different style.”
Leland has been an editor at The Believer since 2003. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and son.
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(c) Gregory Halpern
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