Double Take: A Memoir - Paperback

by Kevin Michael Connolly (Author)

"Kevin Connolly has used an unusual physical circumstance to create a gripping work of art. This deeply affecting memoir will place him in the company of Jeanette Walls and Augusten Burroughs." -- Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants

"Charming ... Connolly recounts growing up a scrappy Montana kid--one who happened to be born without legs... [Double Take] makes for an empowering read." -- People

As featured on 20/20, NPR, and in the Washington Post: Kevin Connolly is a young man born without legs who travels the world--by skateboard, with his camera--on his "Rolling Exhibition," snapping pictures of peoples' reactions to him... and finds out along the way what it truly means to be human.

Front Jacket

Kevin Michael Connolly is a twenty-four-year-old man who has seen the world in a way most of us never will. Whether swarmed by Japanese tourists at Epcot Center as a child or holding court at the X Games on his mono-ski, Kevin Connolly has been an object of curiosity since the day he was born without legs. Growing up in rural Montana, he was raised like any other kid (except, that is, for his father's MacGyver-like contraptions such as the butt boot). As a college student, Kevin traveled to seventeen countries on his skateboard, including Bosnia, China, Ukraine, and Japan. In an attempt to capture the stares of others, he took more than 30,000 photographs of people staring at him. In this dazzling memoir, Kevin Connolly casts the lens inward to explore how we view ourselves and what it is to truly see another person. From the home of his family in Helena, Montana, to the streets of Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur, Kevin's remarkable journey will change the way you look at others, and the way you see yourself.

--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Back Jacket

Kevin Michael Connolly is a twenty-four-year-old man who has seen the world in a way most of us never will. Whether swarmed by Japanese tourists at Epcot Center as a child or holding court at the X Games on his mono-ski, Kevin Connolly has been an object of curiosity since the day he was born without legs. Growing up in rural Montana, he was raised like any other kid (except, that is, for his father's MacGyver-like contraptions such as the "butt boot"). As a college student, Kevin traveled to seventeen countries on his skateboard, including Bosnia, China, Ukraine, and Japan. In an attempt to capture the stares of others, he took more than 30,000 photographs of people staring at him. In this dazzling memoir, Kevin Connolly casts the lens inward to explore how we view ourselves and what it is to truly see another person. From the home of his family in Helena, Montana, to the streets of Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur, Kevin's remarkable journey will change the way you look at others, and the way you see yourself.