Saving Milly: Love, Politics and Parkinson's Disease - Hardcover

Kondracke, Mort

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1586480375 ISBN 13: 9781586480370

Publisher: PublicAffairs,U.S., 2001

Synopsis

A deeply moving, unflinchingly honest memoir by the renowned political journalist of his extraordinary relationship with his wife, Milly, and how her battle with Parkinson's disease has transformed their lives. Morton Kondracke did not intend to marry Millicent Martinez. He intended to marry an Ivy League heiress whose connections and credentials might help his career. But Milly-a Mexican American, inner city Chicago kid and daughter of a radical labor organizer who grew up to be a dynamo-eventually captured his heart. They married, and loved and fought with each other passionately for twenty years. Then one day in 1987, Milly noticed a glitch in her handwriting; a small tremor which would lead to the shattering diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. Saving Milly is Kondracke's powerfully moving chronicle of his vital and volatile marriage; one that has endured and deepened despite the devastating physical and emotional effects of a chronic and as-yet incurable disease. It is also the inspiring, sometimes astoundingly frank story of his own transformation from careerist to caregiver and disease activist-a process that has deepened his religious faith. Finally, it is an exploration of the realities of "disease politics" in the campaign to find a cure for Parkinson's, and a passionate argument for doubling the government's minuscule investment in medical research. For any one of the million Americans with Parkinson's and their families; for anyone inspired by books like John Bayley's Elegy for Iris or Christopher Reeve's Still Me; for anyone whose religious faith has been tested by tragedy; and for anyone who loves a real-life love story, Saving Milly is unforgettable reading.

About this title

Review:

"One of those uncommon books that manages to ennoble its author and its reader alike."
-The Wall Street Journal

"A TRULY COMPELLING READ . . . AN INTENSELY PERSONAL MEMOIR . . . There is only one Milly. And from what I learned in her husband's splendid book, she is a treasure."
-National Review

"HONEST AND WISE . . . A love story that, without mushiness, plumbs the meaning of marriage . . . A tender tell-all that grabs one by the throat from the first paragraph to the last."
-The Oregonian

"ONE OF THOSE BOOKS YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF TO READ. . . . It is a moving testimonial to a brave woman. . . . It's a beautiful book. Do yourself a favor and read it."
-Wisconsin State Journal

"WARM, LOVING, TENDER . . . IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN."
-LARRY KING, USA Today

"POWERFUL, UNVARNISHED, HEARTRENDING."
-Chicago Tribune

About the Author:

Morton Kondracke served as the executive editor and columnist for the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call and was the Washington bureau chief of Newsweek and a senior editor of The New Republic. He was a regular commentator on the Fox News Channel, a panelist on The McLaughlin Group, a cohost of The Beltway Boys, and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He conducted the Kemp Oral History Project and held the Jack Kemp Chair in Political Economy at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. He contributes a blog, Pennsylvania Avenue, for Roll Call. His book Saving Milly was a New York Times bestseller.

About this edition

• Publisher: PublicAffairs,U.S.
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1586480375
• ISBN 13: 9781586480370
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320