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251st out of 376 books
—
280 voters
Invisible: A Memoir
The impressionistic memoir of an artist who was blinded in a sudden act of violence, leading to a profound meditation on what it means to see and be seen
“You live in a city like New York. You read the papers. You look at the television. But you never think it will happen to you. It happened to me one evening.”
One summer night in 1978, Hugues de Montalembert returned home t...more
“You live in a city like New York. You read the papers. You look at the television. But you never think it will happen to you. It happened to me one evening.”
One summer night in 1978, Hugues de Montalembert returned home t...more
Hardcover, 144 pages
Published
January 12th 2010
by Atria Books
(first published 2010)
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Aug 03, 2011
Bill
added it
There is a sort of burden in having a functioning set of eyeballs in the early twenty-first century: simply to see is to filter an ocean of imagery that never relents in its roiling assault on your attention. Imagery that wiggles, vibrates, spins, zooms in and out; imagery that vamps your mental bandwidth, elbowing out the other inputs of sound and smell, taste and touch; imagery that by its pounding, incessant flow grinds you down. If your thoughts could be typeset, the fonts would be missing l...more
This memoir is short but gripping. The author returned home to his New York City apartment on a summer night in 1978 to find two men robbing him. They turned on him and one threw paint thinner in his face. Within a few hours, he was completely blind. As a painter and a filmmaker, vision was part of his being in a deep way.
Sharing his reactions and experiences, freeflowing at times, Hugues takes back control of his life, and regains his independence in a way others thought foolhardy. He talks ab...more
Sharing his reactions and experiences, freeflowing at times, Hugues takes back control of his life, and regains his independence in a way others thought foolhardy. He talks ab...more
What would you do if suddenly you could no longer see the world around you? The leaves as they change from green to red and yellow, your favorite movie, or the smile of the one you love. Would you be able to overcome the obstacle and chalk it up to another one of life's lessons or would your life turn to turmoil and despair?
Painter Hugues de Montalembert's life included a little bit of both. Attacked one summer night in his New York apartment, this man whose livelihood depended on his eyes, lost...more
Painter Hugues de Montalembert's life included a little bit of both. Attacked one summer night in his New York apartment, this man whose livelihood depended on his eyes, lost...more
This short book will make you think about life and how you are living it. Are you waiting for something to happen before you actually get out there and live? Blinded by two thieves this author learned to live his life to the fullest. He had a full life before the blindness, but after he refused to let it change things. He traveled and saw the world without the help of his eyes. He met people who opened up to him because they couldn’t look into his eyes and see his judgments. He learned that ther...more
I don't know if it has always been so, but we are a nation of whiners and complainers. It's not our fault, it's not fair, we are oppressed, victimized, we want sympathy and support groups and reparations and revenge.
Here is a 35-year-old artist. He was blinded during a robbery. And he wisely turns his back on both pity and sainthood, though certainly acknowledging both fear and despair, and chooses life. He recognizes that it is not, cannot be, exactly the same life. But he tries hard not to be...more
Here is a 35-year-old artist. He was blinded during a robbery. And he wisely turns his back on both pity and sainthood, though certainly acknowledging both fear and despair, and chooses life. He recognizes that it is not, cannot be, exactly the same life. But he tries hard not to be...more
Just last week I walking through Penn Station during rush hour. As I was walking toward the exit I noticed a blind man making his was through a crowd of people. A woman was helping he toward an exit, but I got the impression that was the extent of her help. I wondered how he would navigate a busy Eighth Avenue. Was he born blind or did he lose his sight later in life? I admit I felt a little sorry for him. What does all this have to do with Invisible by Hugues de Montalembert? After reading his...more
"INVISIBLE" BY HUGUES DE MONTALEMBERT
When Montalembert loses his eyesight due to violence it is as though everything has been taken away from him. Being an artistic individual it was the one sense he could not stand to lose. In this book, the ability to see through the eyes of a blind man becomes one of the most beautifully written memoirs I have read in quite some time.
Montalembert takes you on a journey, where he shows you what he sees regardless of his loss. It's hard to truly call him a bli...more
When Montalembert loses his eyesight due to violence it is as though everything has been taken away from him. Being an artistic individual it was the one sense he could not stand to lose. In this book, the ability to see through the eyes of a blind man becomes one of the most beautifully written memoirs I have read in quite some time.
Montalembert takes you on a journey, where he shows you what he sees regardless of his loss. It's hard to truly call him a bli...more
A quote from the last book I read, "Why Faith Matters", by Rabbi David Wolpe:
"Tourists visiting a foreign country easily find flaws or oddities: The way people eat, the food they serve, their dress or speech, or their child-raising techniques may seem alien or unorthodox. In time, however, one begins to see with different eyes. Theory gives way to experience. Knowledge becomes personal. We can only see with our own eyes.
Not even science, contrary to what many think, strips away this subjectivit...more
"Tourists visiting a foreign country easily find flaws or oddities: The way people eat, the food they serve, their dress or speech, or their child-raising techniques may seem alien or unorthodox. In time, however, one begins to see with different eyes. Theory gives way to experience. Knowledge becomes personal. We can only see with our own eyes.
Not even science, contrary to what many think, strips away this subjectivit...more
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This book was amazing. It was such a fast read, but it was incredibly inspiring.
Invisible is a memoir of painter de Montalembert's life after he was rendered blind by a man burglarizing his home.
Instead of taking pity upon himself, de Montalembert takes his life into his own hands. He feels that his blindness has not limited him in any ways. He travels the world solo, and discovers that people everywhere are much more open when you can't see them. Strangers confide in him, beggars help him.
Invi
...more
I was on my way to an emergency eye-doctor visit, and I grabbed the smallest book from a stack of review copies on my desk. Not until I was in the waiting room did I realize it was a memoir about blindness. For two days Montalembert's voice rang in my head. In a cab, heading up Madison, I read his own tersely passionate words about the Madison Avenue that he calls his. And on the train home, this spare, airy meditation on what it is to see, to lose and regain independence, to learn to accept hel...more
This was funny, honest, charming, and inspiring. I can think of very few people who wouldn't enjoy reading Montalembert's story, not least of which because of his writing style, which can manage to be both poetic and matter-of-fact in the same breath. He's cinematic and dramatic at points, befitting a filmmaker, and you can sense both the terror and the humor in his situation. He describes both his emotion and his physical surroundings very vividly, and something about his tone made me feel like...more
A man who is a painter is attacked in his apartment in New York City. Paint thinner is thrown in his eyes. He goes blind. This man is Hugues de Montalembert, and this book is his 'memoir' of his road to recovery. Though this is no memoir in the conventional sense; it reads like the transcript of a conversation with an amazing man: episodic, brutally honest, unflinching. The book can be read in an evening, if you're a fast reader, and in two if you are, like I am, a slow reader. A book to shame y...more
This might be the most moving memoir I have ever read.
Artist Hugues de Montalembert is blinded one day when he comes home to a break-in in his New York City apartment; one of the robbers in his home throws paint thinner into his eyes, and he loses his sight forever.
INVISIBLE is De Montalembert's chronicle of the days after he was blinded, and how he was able to accept and even come to appreciate his blindness. De Montalembert's strength and courage are remarkable, and you cannot help but admire...more
Artist Hugues de Montalembert is blinded one day when he comes home to a break-in in his New York City apartment; one of the robbers in his home throws paint thinner into his eyes, and he loses his sight forever.
INVISIBLE is De Montalembert's chronicle of the days after he was blinded, and how he was able to accept and even come to appreciate his blindness. De Montalembert's strength and courage are remarkable, and you cannot help but admire...more
Vision is so much more than what the eyes perceive.
Huges De Montalembert always saw the world for more than what could be seen by the eye. As an artist, his perception of the world was a creation of ideas, emotions and the invisible. Yet his journey for independence, after an assault that left him blind, opens a hidden portal to another part of the universe that inspires.
It is a quick read that provides a unique opportunity to hear the fears and hopes of a man recovering from a terrible event....more
Huges De Montalembert always saw the world for more than what could be seen by the eye. As an artist, his perception of the world was a creation of ideas, emotions and the invisible. Yet his journey for independence, after an assault that left him blind, opens a hidden portal to another part of the universe that inspires.
It is a quick read that provides a unique opportunity to hear the fears and hopes of a man recovering from a terrible event....more
In 1978 when the author was living in New York he returned home to find two men robbing his home. A struggle ensued and one of the men threw paint thinner in de Montalembert’s face, blinding him permanently.
The book is a short 128 pages and is packed full of profound prose. The author’s perspective on the aftermath of the assault, his quest for independence, and his life going forward is soul penetrating and almost poetic. The balance he finds between independence and coming to terms with his ne...more
The book is a short 128 pages and is packed full of profound prose. The author’s perspective on the aftermath of the assault, his quest for independence, and his life going forward is soul penetrating and almost poetic. The balance he finds between independence and coming to terms with his ne...more
(I originally meant to reserve Invisible by Paul Auster, but wasn't paying attention and checked out this book by mistake.)
The beginning made me feel panicky, as he described the ways in which he went about dealing with and emotionally grasping his blindness. It was almost enough to make me abandon the book. But I finished it and while I wouldn't say it'll ever be one of my favorite books, it's an engrossing read.
The beginning made me feel panicky, as he described the ways in which he went about dealing with and emotionally grasping his blindness. It was almost enough to make me abandon the book. But I finished it and while I wouldn't say it'll ever be one of my favorite books, it's an engrossing read.
I love that this is short. Many would have been tempted, I'm sure, to write a lengthy ramble on how life, the universe and everything changed after the loss of their sight after a violent home invasion. But not so in this case. What the author has done is boiled his life down to a wisdom-rich stock. Invisible might just as aptly have been titled: The Meaning of Life. There are some true diamonds among these rough-cut pages.
If you're tired of the "handicapped hero" genre, try this book. It's autobiographical based on a real event in the author's life in which he loses his sight. His trip through depression/denial/etc is very richly but sparingly described. It is the description of being blind that actually made me understand what is going on in the blind person's head.
Mar 27, 2010
Beth
marked it as to-read
Just read about this in Newsweek-- sounds VERY interesting!!! The reviewer wrote, " If Haiti didn't squelch your personal pity party, this man will." Sometimes it is the blind who help us see...
I found this book fascinating-the artist author became blind at age 35 after a violent attack and went on to direct a ballet and travel the world alone.
Interesting and inspiring perspective. "Fear of life is the first enemy of the blind" and I might add: the sighted.
And learned about Ilulissat, Greenland!
And learned about Ilulissat, Greenland!
A quiet, beautiful book that, while a quick read, will stay with me for a very, very long time. Highly recommended.
I liked this one a lot. How the artist comes to grips with the world again after having been blinded.
I really enjoyed this! Especially the bits about seeing what can't be physically seen.
Who gave this guy a book deal? I don't care if you're blind, this book was unreadable. A few words of advice, Hugues: Hire a ghostwriter.
It revived my appreciation for the senses that I often take for granted. I think it's an excellent book that every person should read. I've been hearing and learning more and more of late, about how every turbulence is only as harrowing as we let it be and this memoir is a testimony to that. I am highly intrigued and perhaps a little embarrassed to learn that much of what I've seen has only been perception. And also, a reminder to myself, I am never to forget the cab incident with the Cambodian...more
Feb 17, 2011
Christy
added it
This one is really fantastic
A triumph of character.
A simply amazing book.
This is a highly philosophical memoir. I wanted to read more about Montalembert's day-to-day life than he provided.
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