Inside the Halo and Beyond: The Anatomy of a Recovery

In July 1998, when Maxine Kumins horse bolted at a carriage-driving clinic, she was not expected to live. Yet, less than a year later, her progress pronounced a miracle by her doctors, she was at work on this journal of her astonishing recovery. She tells of her time "inside the halo," the near-medieval device that kept her head immobile during weeks of intensive care and rehabilitation, of the lasting "rehab" friendships, and of the loving family who always believed she would heal. "[S]he resonates wisdom while announcing a triumph of body and soul."--Anne Roiphe, <em>New York Times Book Review</em> "Maxine Kumin brings the sensitivity and imagination of a poet to her extraordinary ordeal."--Richard Selzer, author of <em>Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery</em> "From a singular experience she has created a lesson that is universal, which, it seems to me, is the essence of being a poet."--Abraham Verghese, author of <em>The Tennis Partner</em>