Book Review: Invisible by Hughes de Montalembert

Title: Invisible

Author: Hughes de Montalembert

Genre: Memoirs

Number of Pages: 144

Rating: C

Recommended?: No

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Normally I really like memoirs but this book just didn’t work for me. It’s written by a man who was blinded during a violent attack and had to relearn to do the things he had taken for granted before. He rediscovers his love of travel and art and learns to ‘see’ his surroundings using his other senses. This memoir is supposed to be philosophical but it comes off more as pretentious.

I never felt like I got to know the author through his experiences, and even though I know he wanted to focus on his disability the total lack of background on this guy weakened the narrative. On the up side this was a really quick read and I finished it in one sitting, but unfortunately I didn’t feel emotionally invested in the author or his (admittedly impressive) personal story.