Review: Blind by Belo Miguel Cipriani

Summary
Imagine if the most severe physical pain and sorrow in your life were inflicted by the people you trusted most. In the spring of 2007, Belo Cipriani was beaten and robbed of his sight at the hands of his childhood friends. Blind: A Memoir chronicles the two years immediately following the assault. At the age of twenty-six, Belo found himself learning to walk, cook, and date in the dark. Armed with visual memory and his newly developed senses, Belo shows readers what the blind see. He narrates the recondite world of the blind, where microwaves, watches, and computers talk, and where guide dogs guard as well as lead.

Review
When you read a book like this, it makes you hopefully appreciate the life you have whether if it’s the ideal or not. Everyone has a story but through the eyes of tragedy, its puts the little things that people complain about on a daily basis in perspective. While many retreat inward from their personal defeat, it is those as Joel Osteen says “who become victors rather than victims” who are truly inspirational. 

Blind: A Memoir, chronicles the two years following the life of Belo Ciprani, who was attacked one day by childhood friends that left him blind. Rather than retreat inward, he found the courage through the help of family and new friends to rebuild a life that he thought could never be again. Through technology and perseverance, he was able to regain the basic privileges of life to walk, cook, have a social life and experience life through the eyes of a person who happens to be blind. Through his own darkness, he was able to find the light again.

I thought the book was inspiring, honest and filled with moments that were many teachable lessons through the eyes of a person whose lens many should put on. One in particular, the understanding that this is an adaptive obstacle rather than a handicap because they have the same wants, desires and goals as any other with sight. Just because they are people who are blind, doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be treated with the same respect and courtesy. 

His life from what he experienced with the pain and obstacles through where he found his way I think could help some many who face the same. I’d recommend this book for reading.

Reviewed by Michelle Bowles

Book Information
Publisher: Wheatmark
Publication date: 6/15/2011
Pages: 186