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2 books match the query 'Tourette syndrome'

cover of Thrill-Bent

Thrill-Bent

Jan Richman

Tupelo Press, 2013

Journalist and armchair thrill-seeker Jan Richman gets a freelance assignment to write about the nation’s old-fashioned wooden roller coasters. Jan takes off across the U.S. to report on a fanatical sub-culture. This picaresque research junket dovetails with the wedding of her Tourette’s-riddled father, whom she hasn’t seen in years. Brazen and stingingly funny, Thrill-Bent zooms from Coney Island to New Orleans to the San Fernando Valley as our heroine learns how to be truly impulsive in a buttoned-down world.
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cover of Twitch And Shout: A Touretter’s Tale

Twitch And Shout

A Touretter’s Tale

Lowell Handler

University of Minnesota Press, 2004

The remarkable memoir of a Touretter’s journey of self-discovery—now back in print!

Lowell Handler has Tourette’s syndrome, a disorder characterized by exaggerated facial tics, sudden jerking movements of the body and limbs, and explosive public outbursts, usually in the form of expletives and racial epithets. Although he is a successful and acclaimed photojournalist, Handler has often seen himself as an outsider—a social outcast.  With courage and candor, he recalls the difficulties he suffered growing up, the confusion he experienced when doctors misdiagnosed his bizarre behavior as a psychological aberration, and finally how, restless and despairing, he embarked on a quest for answers.  

In Twitch and Shout, Handler sets out, camera in hand, on a journey through less than savory parts of America.  From a transvestite bar in Tampa to a flophouse in New Orleans to a community health center in New York, he meets a variety of people who, like himself, don’t conform to the standards of conventional society. With a keen eye for detail and an acute sense of humor, this memoir perfectly captures the unique and unforgettable life of a Touretter.
 
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