A hilarious and poignant memoir
grappling with family, disability, and coming of age in two
closets—as a gay man and as a man living with cerebral palsy
Greg
Marshall’s early years were pretty bizarre. Rewind the VHS tapes
(this is the nineties) and you’ll see a lopsided teenager limping
across a high school stage, or in a wheelchair after leg surgeries,
pondering why he’s crushing on half of the Utah Jazz. Add to this
home video footage a mom clacking away at her newspaper column
between chemos, a dad with ALS, and a cast of foulmouthed siblings.
Fast forward the tape and you’ll find Marshall happily settled into
his life as a gay man only to discover he’s been living in another
closet his whole life: He has cerebral palsy, a diagnosis that has
been kept from him since birth. (His parents always told him he just
had "tight tendons" and left it at that.) Here, in the hot
mess of it all, lies Greg Marshall’s wellspring of wit and wisdom.
Leg
is an extraordinarily funny and insightful memoir from a daring new
voice. Packed with outrageous stories of a singular childhood, it is
also a startlingly original examination of what it means to transform
when there are parts of yourself you can’t change, a moving
portrait of a family in crisis, and a tale of resilience of spirit.
In Marshall’s deft hands, we see a story both personal and
universal—of being young and wanting the world, even when the world
doesn’t feel like yours to want.
