I've set myself quite a challenge here haven't I? How do you write about something that there's nothing to write about? I mean, it would be stupid of me to even try to explain who Christopher Reeve was, even worse of me to try and summarize his story, and because "Still Me" is his autobiography, that really is all I could have done: tell you what it's about. But I can't.
You see, this book is so moving, wise, passionate and gripping, it shows who he really was so well, that any attempt of mine to try and reproduce it would be disrespectful, unwise, dispassionate and, yet again, stupid.
So, all I can really do is write about how great he was, that though he could not move he never stopped moving.
Christopher Reeve was a modern-day hero and this book, his legacy to the whole of mankind, does a great job in showing just how generous, kind, loving and full of life he was.
A highly talented actor (for both the theater and film industry)many people think of his life as one, great irony. The man who played Superman, that unstopable Kryptonian who can fly faster than a speeding bullet, run at the speed of light and lift a truck over his head was suddenly, unexpectedly, left motionless.
I don't see it that way.
I think the real Superman, the real Man-Of-Steel, was unleashed on Memorial Day, 1995. As he fought for his life, Christopher Reeve gained a strength three times that of his badly dressed alter-ego. To lead the life he chose to lead recuires a strength unknown to most of humanity, a strength greater than that needed to lift an eighteen-wheeler, a strength that comes from the gut, from the will to live, a strength that is accesible only to those as grand and unique as Christopher Reeve was.