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Silent Body, Vibrant Mind: Living with Motor Neurone Disease
This is the memoir of a man who has lived with motor neurone disease, written with almost unimaginable physical difficulty, but imbued with the author's intelligence, positivity, and humour.
248 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2012
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21 people want to read
About the author
Peter Anderson
499 books4 followersPeter Anderson hails from South Africa, but currently resides in Texas, where he is an associate professor of English. The author of a previous collection of poems, Vanishing Ground, his work in fiction and poetry has appeared in numerous literary magazines and has been anthologized in both America and South Africa. The Unspeakable is his first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 13, 2012
‘I have had to become accustomed to living life between my ears.’
Motor Neurone Disease (MND), a progressive neurological disease, is also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Peter Anderson is one of the approximately 1500 Australians affected by this disease and his wife Leanne and daughter Eliza are two of the thousands of family members who live with its impact.
‘I can’t begin to express how difficult it is to lose one’s ability to communicate.’
In 2001, when Peter Anderson was aged 36 and his daughter Eliza was 12 months old, he was diagnosed with MND. Peter and Leanne were told that the disease would probably kill him within two to three years.
Eleven years after that news, this book was launched. The fact that Peter is still alive is due in part to the fact that he has a variant of the disease which has progressed more slowly. From reading the book, it also seems highly likely that the positive attitude that Peter, Leanne and Eliza have had towards his disease has also helped immensely.
‘I have not given up on life, just grasped the reality of my present.’
‘Silent Body, Vibrant Mind’ is Peter Anderson’s account of both living with and fighting against MND. He writes (thanks to some wonderful enabling technology) of still teaching for two years after his diagnosis. Of the difficulties of writing when his condition restricted him to writing around 100 words during a five hour session, with his arms supported by braces and his fingers splinted. Of communicating:
‘I haven’t uttered a word in nearly six years. I haven’t written in four.’
In one of her contributions to the book, Leanne Anderson observes that:
‘For sufferers of MND, the actions of walking, talking and feeding are covertly stolen, one after the other.’
It seems that just as the MND sufferer becomes used to the loss of one function, and adjusts, another function is lost and the adjustment process must begin again. A cruel disease, which progressively reduces the sufferer to living ‘between the ears’.
And yet, the message in this book is about fighting the battles that need to be fought, not succumbing to the disease. Peter Anderson and his family have not lived the lives they envisaged, prior to his diagnosis in 2001, and their lives are full of challenges. Peter and his family know that his story will inevitably have an unhappy ending. But, in the meantime, they are living.
This is a courageous story: somehow it introduces hope, humour and inspiration in a narrative about a dreadful disease. It’s a story for Eliza of a father she never knew before his diagnosis. It’s a narrative - for the rest of us – about dealing with the multiple challenges of adversity.
‘The story isn’t in the disease, but in our triumph over it. I am sure there are thousands of people like us bravely fighting their own battles in their own way, and surely that’s a story worth telling.’
I was simultaneously saddened and inspired by Peter Anderson’s story. He has accepted his fate but fights courageously against every restriction each loss of function imposes. He and his family are realistic but not defeatist, and very courageous.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Motor Neurone Disease (MND), a progressive neurological disease, is also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Peter Anderson is one of the approximately 1500 Australians affected by this disease and his wife Leanne and daughter Eliza are two of the thousands of family members who live with its impact.
‘I can’t begin to express how difficult it is to lose one’s ability to communicate.’
In 2001, when Peter Anderson was aged 36 and his daughter Eliza was 12 months old, he was diagnosed with MND. Peter and Leanne were told that the disease would probably kill him within two to three years.
Eleven years after that news, this book was launched. The fact that Peter is still alive is due in part to the fact that he has a variant of the disease which has progressed more slowly. From reading the book, it also seems highly likely that the positive attitude that Peter, Leanne and Eliza have had towards his disease has also helped immensely.
‘I have not given up on life, just grasped the reality of my present.’
‘Silent Body, Vibrant Mind’ is Peter Anderson’s account of both living with and fighting against MND. He writes (thanks to some wonderful enabling technology) of still teaching for two years after his diagnosis. Of the difficulties of writing when his condition restricted him to writing around 100 words during a five hour session, with his arms supported by braces and his fingers splinted. Of communicating:
‘I haven’t uttered a word in nearly six years. I haven’t written in four.’
In one of her contributions to the book, Leanne Anderson observes that:
‘For sufferers of MND, the actions of walking, talking and feeding are covertly stolen, one after the other.’
It seems that just as the MND sufferer becomes used to the loss of one function, and adjusts, another function is lost and the adjustment process must begin again. A cruel disease, which progressively reduces the sufferer to living ‘between the ears’.
And yet, the message in this book is about fighting the battles that need to be fought, not succumbing to the disease. Peter Anderson and his family have not lived the lives they envisaged, prior to his diagnosis in 2001, and their lives are full of challenges. Peter and his family know that his story will inevitably have an unhappy ending. But, in the meantime, they are living.
This is a courageous story: somehow it introduces hope, humour and inspiration in a narrative about a dreadful disease. It’s a story for Eliza of a father she never knew before his diagnosis. It’s a narrative - for the rest of us – about dealing with the multiple challenges of adversity.
‘The story isn’t in the disease, but in our triumph over it. I am sure there are thousands of people like us bravely fighting their own battles in their own way, and surely that’s a story worth telling.’
I was simultaneously saddened and inspired by Peter Anderson’s story. He has accepted his fate but fights courageously against every restriction each loss of function imposes. He and his family are realistic but not defeatist, and very courageous.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
January 9, 2020
This simple story of Peter's life and his journey with Motor Neurone Disease is beautifully written. The fact that it even exists is remarkable, given the challenges and personal cost of creating a written work by someone with this disease. The content about progression of the disease is challenging at times, perhaps more so for me as my mother died of MND. My memories of the ravages of the disease are still raw and painful almost 30 years later. It is not, however, a gloomy or depressing book. The story is surprisingly uplifting and inspiring, perhaps because of the focus on the good things that happened along the journey and the positive approach to life that is taken by Peter and his family. The messages about focusing on the present and making the most of what you do have are powerful reminders to us all about how to live well.
November 4, 2013
A very inspirational story written by an extremely courageous man. I can't believe the strength Peter Anderson has displayed since his diagnosis. His family are nothing short of amazing - simply put, they're all very special people and this story has left its mark on me for sure.
August 5, 2019
Wonderful book to read.
This book enabled be to understand the journey that people with MND go though,!the progression of MND Is really scary to experience but Pete chose to fight and make it through the day.
This book enabled be to understand the journey that people with MND go though,!the progression of MND Is really scary to experience but Pete chose to fight and make it through the day.
December 29, 2023
Difficult but also lovely to read about Peter's own account of living with MND. Hit home for me. His positivity was inspirational.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews