In high school, for some odd reason, I went through an Alex P. Keaton phase. Alex P. Keaton, Michael J. Fox's character on "Family Ties," always wore snappy suit jackets and ties. So, while my peers were busy dressing themselves in Banana Republic shirts and Levi's pants, I was finding nice pairs of slacks and colorful neckties. Odder still, I was voted second place for best dressed my senior year (losing to Eliot Wong, who dressed like Vanilla Ice). All that being the case, I've always liked Michael J. Fox. He seemed like a nice guy with a nice family doing nice work with nice friends. After reading his memoir LUCKY MAN, I don't guess anymore. He is a nice guy with a nice family doing nice work with nice friends.
"I woke up to find the message in my left hand. It had me trembling. It wasn't a fax, telegram, memo, or the usual sort of missive bringing disturbing news. In fact, my hand held nothing at all. The trembling was the message." Fox has Parkinson's disease, a degenerative neurological condition. He ignored the tremors and diagnosis (which he received at the nearly unheard of early age of 30) for years, but with the support of his family and friends, he announced his condition to the world in 1998. "The ten years since my diagnosis have been the best ten years of my life, and I consider myself a lucky man."
What's great about Fox's new memoir is that he writes just as well as he acts ("Family Ties," "Back to the Future," "The Secret of My Success," "Spin City"), and you come to understand Fox a bit better through his clear writing and his keen sense of humor. Even with all that he's gone through --- the search for a diagnosis, the tremors, the drugs, the debilitations --- he still smiles and he still laughs, even about his own life, which hasn't always been peaches and cream.
We discover him in childhood, a precocious boy living in western Canada and dabbling in television. We see his meteoric rise in television as he auditions, wins, and rises to fame with his role as Alex P. Keaton. "Gary recited a rambling monologue about what made Alex tick. I nodded. And then I read. Right away I could feel I was in the zone. The laughter was huge, and it wasn't just 'writers laughing at their own jokes' laughter, they were laughing at what I was bringing to it."
We then get a behind-the-scenes of the rich and famous and see what nearly brought Michael J. Fox down --- alcohol. "Now, without the pretense of celebration and camaraderie to veil the abuse, I craved alcohol as a direct response to the need I felt to escape my situation. Joyless and secretive, I drank to disassociate; drinking now was about isolation and self-medication."
The bulk, and best part of the book, is his detailing of his battle with his disease --- accepting it, living his life through it and finding that, even though it was taking over his body, his spirit grew, which made him more able to appreciate his career and his life. He found a new sense of purpose and now devotes his time to finding a cure and to spreading public awareness about Parkinson's disease.
Fox's new book is honest and charming, funny and thoughtful. And that is how I would describe Michael J. Fox as well. He's a heroic fellow in an age where heroes are hard to come by. Not because he's fought his disease bravely, but because he is a better man because of it. Perhaps I should go through a new phase, the Michael J. Fox phase.
--- Reviewed by Jonathan Shipley
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