Book Review : GABBY, by Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly

Appropriately subtitled A Story of Courage and Hope, the Giffords-Kelly book (with collaboration by Wall Street Journal columnist Jeff Zaslow) is a must read.

No, I'm not saying you must read it. But for me, there was no choice. Our politics differ dramatically, Gabby being a moderate Democrat and me a hardcore right wing Tea Party Republican (with liberal leanings on social issues), but we both hang our hats in Arizona. I even live in the Congressional District she represented at the time she was shot in the head by a madman on January 8, 2011, while meeting with constituents at a Congress On Your Corner event in Tucson.

That day, when the news broke of the rampage that killed six people and wounded thirteen, politics went out the window. It's back now, much as Gabby herself is very much back in the land of the living, but the horror made one thing clear to all of us: Bottom line, humanity trumps politics. Not for a true extremist, obviously, but for the vast majority of us, definitely.

A few days later, I wrote the shortest-ever Hub of my online writing career, titled Arizona Prays: The Tragedy in Tucson. It was short because there wasn't much to say, but what had to be said...had to be said.

As I'm writing this, I'm finding it to be an emotionally difficult task to accomplish. More than a year after the fact, the emotions are still very much there. Which makes the existence of the Giffords-Kelly book all the more impressive: If typing out a simple one-page book review is this challenging to plow through, how hard must it have been for both Mark Kelly (whose voice rings out strongly throughout most of the text) and his wife, the shooter's primary target, to get through the process of putting out a full length book?

Honestly, I can't begin to do the math on that one.

What I can do is break this Hub into sections separated by photographs.

Mark Kelly: Besides being Gabby's husband, Mark is best known for his work as an astronaut and Commander of the space shuttle Endeavor. Prior to that, however, he was a combat pilot in Desert Storm, a Naval aviator who flew 39 combat missions against Saddam Hussein's forces. He's now retired from the Navy with the rank of Captain after 25 years in uniform.

Gabrielle Giffords: A U.S. Representative from Arizona since 2007 (now retired), Gabby is the only female federal legislator wounded in an assassination attempt in our nation's entire history.

To both of you, Mark Kelly and Gabrielle Giffords, I have to say:

IN RECOGNITION OF YOUR TIRELESS EFFORTS ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.

When Gabby officially stepped down, wisely relinquishing her seat in Congress so that she could continue to concentrate completely on her unceasing rehabilitation efforts to "get better", I had a powerful impulse. At our very next weekly Tea Party meeting, I proposed to the group that we commission a plaque with that wording to send to Mrs. Giffords.

The idea was nixed immediately, and with good reason: A couple of very savvy members felt the motivation behind the gesture would be inevitably misconstrued. Democrats in general (and liberals in particular) would view any such effort on our part as lacking sincerity, phony, maybe even some kind of political ploy--and we'd end up doing more harm than good, stirring up emotions that didn't need to be stirred.

I saw immediately that they were right. Too many people on the left honestly believe the Tea Party is full of anger and/or racism while utterly lacking the milk of human kindness. As an individual, however, I can say it in print as I've done here, and let the chips fall where they may.

Next, a few things about the book itself. After all, this is being presented as a book review.

GABBY, a Story of Courage and Hope, is not difficult reading. That is, it's not like trying to plow through an insurance textbook (boring, fall asleep) or an advanced physics text (gibberish to the uninitiated). But it's not Mary Poppins, either. I found myself having to take it slowly, often just a page or two or three at a time.

There's too much power packed into its 309 pages to do otherwise.

Not only that, but there's far too much detail to cover adequately here. So...a few highlights. You'll have to take it from there.

1. The format is brilliant, a contribution (I'm guessing) from collaborator Jeff Zaslow. The reader is taken on a journey that glides effortlessly back and forth between images of the medical efforts to save Gabby's life, earlier days, how Mark and Gabby met, rehab, the space launch, peeing one's pants--you name it. Vignette, vignette, vignette--and from all those vignettes, the full picture emerges in blazing color.

2. As that last entry indicates, there's a lot of brutal honesty going on here. The flyleaf refers to it as "unvarnished candor". Even if the people involved meant absolutely nothing to you one way or the other, you couldn't possibly read this masterpiece without learning more about injury to the brain (and the aftermath) than you ever wanted to know.

There are dozens--maybe hundreds--of personal insights. Just one example, with which every married man on the planet should be able to resonate: Gabby's decision to head for D.C. in case her vote was needed on raising the debt ceiling...that was a last minute call. The Congresswoman left for the airport directly from her rehab facility, which left poor Mark picking out clothing for her from the closet and slamming it into a suitcase. As he puts it so eloquently,

"If you think flying the space shuttle is dangerous, try packing for your wife."

3. For any who might wonder about Gabby's timing of her decision to resign from Congress, this tome will make one thing crystal clear: She made the decision on her own terms at the right time. Her entire bucket list consists of one thing: Get better. Concentrating on the rehab process every single day is the way to do that.

4. Her mind, including memory, is clear as a bell. It's communication that presents the greatest challenge.

5. Gabby's voice is also present in the book. I won't spoil it by telling you where.

From the opening pages of GABBY, the parallels between Mark Kelly's wife (Gabrielle) and my wife (Pamela) were remarkable. To a lesser degree, that was also true for Kelly and Ghost. A few examples:

1. Pam and Gabby are both Jewish, but only half by bloodline, with the Jewish half coming from the father.

2. Both women were for many years absolutely unstoppable, go-go-go, work-work-work. I'd never known anyone who could match that feature of Pam's personality, but Gabby (whom I've not met) sounds just like my sweetheart in that respect.

3. Both have been shot. Gabby took a 9mm round to the head. Years ago, a fellow shot Pam in both feet and ankles with a .357 Magnum revolver. Twice. Claimed it was an accident.

4. The shooters of both women were men with bad attitudes. Jared Loughner, it was discovered through writings left in his room, had nursed a grudge against Mrs. Giffords since he'd been (he felt) given too little respect and thanks for volunteering to help with a Congress On Your Corner event in 2007. Pam was at "her" shooter's home to take the man's wife to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting...which the drug addict apparently did not appreciate.

5. Besides having been workaholics, especially in the service of others, both women were overachievers from the beginning. One of Gabby's nicknames was, in fact, Little Miss Overachiever. Pam was more likely to be called Little Miss Worry Wart, but some of her athletic feats made it clear that overachieving was the real name of the game.

Remember the Presidential Fitness Test? Pam was in a class of her own on that one. When the next-best student (male) knocked out over 500 situps, the miniscule redhead retaliated with more than 2,000. In the bent-arm hang, she held position so long (more than 5 minutes) that the coaches had to coax her back to consciousness to get her to release her grip. She was still in perfect form at the time.

6. When disaster clobbered these ladies, both of them had men in their lives who were up to the task of long term caretaking (Mark for Gabby, me for Pam). Additionally, neither man had been on the scene all that long when "stuff happened".

Mark and Gabby were married in 2007, with the shooting occurring in 2011.

Ghost and Pam hooked up in 1997; a super-mega-bout of fibromyalgia (with many more ailments to come) flattened my girl in 1998.

7. Both Pam and Gabby suffer from brain damage. In Gabby's case, as we know, the damage was done by a bullet. In Pam's case, she has some degree of brain demyelination (which is the disappearance of some of the myelin sheathng that protects the neuons in her brain). Demyelination is present in diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's; Pam battles the beginning symptoms of both.

8. No matter what the challenge, no matter how severe the pain, no matter how frustrating the loss of abilities long taken for granted must be, both of these remarkable Souls soldier on. Use it or lose it is Pam's motto, and Gabby clearly lives by a similar credo.

9. Both women are fearless when they need to be. Several entries in the book had Pam and me both laughing our tails off because Gabby in action sounded just like Pam. In one case, some idiot stole Gabby's Vespa scooter while she was in college, then had the nerve to advertise it for sale. She figured out where he had it stored, hit the place in the middle of the night with a pair of wire cutters, and stole it back.

Pure Pam.

10. All four of us--Mark, Gabby, Ghost, Pam--have been lifelong risk takers. I haven't strapped myself to a gazillion tons of rocket fuel and blasted myself into space, but more than a few broncs and bulls in the rodeo arena launched me pretty well. Pam has been a drag racer, a black belt level martial artist, and a whole lot more.

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So, Ghost, are you saying this book is worth the $26.99 you paid for the hardcover version?

Yes, that's what I'm saying. If nothing else, Mark's story of how he once stole a Saudi Arabian flag right off of a ship's mast on a dare is worth that much.