I can’t remember how I heard about Ryan O’Connell’s I’m Special, I think he writes for Uproxx, but I’ve read several special gay boy memoirs in the last few years so perhaps it was a Goodreads suggestion.
Ryan O’Connell has cerebral palsy. He is also gay. Needless to say he is a little special or at least has a unique perspective on life. He also got hit by a car while he was in college which allowed him to blame his cerebral palsy symptoms on his accident.
He talks about growing up in a conservative town where there weren’t a lot of gay role models, although he did receive a warm welcome when he came out of the closet by his friends and family. There are a few in depth stories about blow jobs & anal sex that probably aren’t everyone’s cup of tea (which I was unaware of prior to reading) and he talks about his prescription drug abuse. He is very upfront about how he was able to pursue his dreams of being a writer because of the trust fund that was established by his parents’ malpractice suit against the doctor who delivered him. He whines about the social media/ Internet driven culture we live in while acknowledging his big break came from writing for Thought Catalog. He also talks about the Millennial generation and how we are both better & worse than the Baby Boomers that came before us.
“My generation is the first to be in charge of their image. We call the shots and tell you how to feel about our lives. It doesn’t matter if what we are projecting is phony. If someone believes it, that makes it true.”
I always feel bad critiquing a memoir because it’s someone’s real life, but it felt like something I’ve read before. The cerebral palsy/ compartment syndrome was a new twist but it still felt a little repetitive to me (which probably makes me a terrible person). Luckily it’s not much of a time investment- I read half of it while getting a pedicure.
