The Story of My Life
by Helen Keller
A Review
When I was a little girl I saw a movie adaptation of The Miracle Worker. I remember being amazed by the story that a teacher could teach a deaf and blind girl how to read, learn, and communicate. I remember thinking that it was a simply amazing feat and one that I would have previously considered impossible. When I saw on Goodreads that Hellen Keller herself had written an account of her own life, I knew I had to read it. I decided I would listen to this on audiobook. It is in fact the first time I have ever listened to a audiobook.
The Story of My Life tells of Hellen's experiences from the earliest she can remember up until she is 22 years old. I was totally engaged in the first several chapters as she tells of her young life before she was able to communicate. Even the early portions about her teacher Annie Sullivan were interesting. I am disappointed to say however that as a whole, the book was a total flop in my opinion. Hellen spends so much time talking about the plots of every book she has ever read and reads us verbatim much of her correspondence (even though I will admit I skipped through much of these letters). This ends up making much of the book dull and dry. It seems that Hellen unknowingly decided to put every small detail of her schooling into her writing while she left out the things that would have been more interesting. I can remember thinking that her own account of her life was so much different from the movie adaptation I had watched. Perhaps her story would be better told by another due to the fact that she was so young when much of the interesting stories would have taken place. It is very likely that Hellen isn't about to remember enough about that interesting time in her life.
As a person I respect Hellen Keller very much and I know that she is an amazing person who has triumphed over so much adversary. However, her book simply wasn't to my liking. I gave it 2 out of 5 stars.
Have a great day bookworms!
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