The Zipper Club: A Memoir

by Thomas Mannella

A young man's struggle to come to terms with the deteriorating valve in his heart.

For years Thomas Mannella observed the intrigue of people who believed him when he said the scars across his chest were from an alley knifing.

This was a lie, but the more scarred by surgeries he felt, the greater his denial. He detached himself from the deteriorating valve in his heart, which he hoped would make him feel normal, and appear that way to others, but living this way, he didn’t own the marks; the marks owned him.

With every beat, blood leaked back into his left ventricle. His heart ballooned.

Finally, his time ran out : he collected his college diploma and walked off campus straight into the OR.

He had long been a member of the zipper club.

174 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 23, 2016

About the author

Thomas Mannella was born and raised in Naples, NY, and educated at St. Lawrence University and St. John Fisher College. Winner of the Carol Houck Smith Award in Nonfiction for the 2016 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, he was also Bread Loaf contributor and a Pushcart Prize nominee in 2015. The Zipper Club: A Memoir, winner of the 2016 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year in creative works, is his first book.

Reviews

[Ted Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very challenging book for me to review, because it is the first time that I have read a memoir written by someone whom I know. In addition to my teaching, I have been a soccer coach for over forty years, and Tom Mannella was one of the best players on one of the great high school teams in Western New York that my teams ever faced: the Naples Big Green. I know him, I was a colleague/rival of his great high school soccer coach, and I have been to Naples (a wonderful place) more times than I can count. Even today, I see Tom every year, as he is the coach of the Naples boys basketball team, and they play at our place every year. Reading this book was thus a very strange experience for me, as my knowledge of Tom had heretofore been confined to my view of him an incredible soccer player (sweeper on the '99 New York State champs) and today as an awesome adult, both an English teacher and coach at his alma mater. What I never knew about Tom was the incredible story of his three(!) open heart surgeries, beginning at age five, and his struggles to attempt to maintain a "normal" life in the face of such challenges. In reading this book, one might question the things that he did while in high school and college- the sports, the hiking, the drinking- but I viewed it as his attempt to remain connected to his friends and to the type of life that teenage boys in Naples were supposed to lead. I think that this memoir is very honest, as he does not seem to underplay any of the seemingly reckless things that he did while growing up. Knowing Tom today, I think that I can detect a certain serenity and wisdom that comes from facing one's own mortality at a very young age, and then being grateful for the life that came after. The book ends with the examination of Tom and his wife Missy's unborn child, an examination that determines that the baby does not have any congenital heart defects. And now, sixteen years later, I can tell you that this son, Maddox Mannella, is, like his dad, one heck of a soccer player for the Naples Big Green.

[Lisa EN · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author has a wonderful memory of his childhood and the events that brought him to be a member of "the zipper club." I loved all of the details and description of his medical treatments. Author is from Naples, NY so that made it even better.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading The Zipper Club. The author tells us a story about health issues most of us--fortunately--can only imagine, and he does so with a style and energy that make you want to read the whole thing in one go. He's got a conversational style that draws you in and leaves you marveling that he survived in the face of his own stubborn refusal to slow down. If you ever need a book to remind you to be thankful for your own good fortune, this is the perfect choice.

[Lucinda B. Domm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent writing

I read this book in two days. I could not put it down. I am from Tommy's home town and this story made me laugh and cry at the same time.