Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It

Description

A hilarious and poignant memoir grappling with family, disability, and coming of age in two closetsâas a gay man and as a man living with cerebral palsy     âRiotously funny . . . [Marshall's] writing brings to mind early David Sedaris . . . Rare is the book that makes me both laugh out loud and shed actual tears, but Leg made me do both.â âBOOKPAGE, Starred Review      âOne hell of an entertaining book.â âBUZZFEED, Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books of 2023    âLaugh-out-loud funny. Greg Marshall is one helluva storyteller.â âISAAC FITZGERALD, New York Times bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts     âA strange, smutty, hilarious, beautiful, compassionate, provoking, big-hearted, sharp-tongued, original, brilliant memoir. I hated to see it end.â âELIZABETH McCRACKEN, National Book Award finalist and author of The Hero of This Book      âOne of the most exciting new voices in non-fiction.â âRYAN OâCONNELL, author of Just by Looking at Him     Greg Marshallâs early years were pretty bizarre. Rewind the VHS tapes (this is the nineties) and youâll see a lopsided teenager limping across a high school stage, or in a wheelchair after leg surgeries, pondering why heâs crushing on half of the Utah Jazz. Add to this home video footage a mom clacking away at her newspaper column between chemos, a dad with ALS, and a cast of foulmouthed siblings. Fast forward the tape and youâll find Marshall happily settled into his life as a gay man only to discover heâs been living in another closet his whole life: He has cerebral palsy, a diagnosis that has been kept from him since birth. (His parents always told him he just had "tight tendons" and left it at that.) Here, in the hot mess of it all, lies Greg Marshallâs wellspring of wit and wisdom.      Leg is an extraordinarily funny and insightful memoir from a daring new voice. Packed with outrageous stories of a singular childhood, it is also a startlingly original examination of what it means to transform when there are parts of yourself you canât change, a moving portrait of a family in crisis, and a tale of resilience of spirit. In Marshallâs deft hands, we see a story both personal and universalâof being young and wanting the world, even when the world doesnât feel like yours to want.  Â