Spellbound: My Life as a Dyslexic Wordsmith

In this humorous and affecting debut memoir, Canadian comedian Hanley discusses how he built a career in spite of his debilitating dyslexia. Hanley grew up in Oshawa, a medium-sized city near Toronto (“Like Detroit minus the European flair”), and struggled academically from an early age. In elementary school, he frustrated his teachers with his inability to keep up with his classmates; in middle school, he was diagnosed with severe dyslexia. With college off the table, Hanley started booking work as a model on a friend’s suggestion. Then an acquaintance in the film industry asked him to punch up jokes in a movie about a chimpanzee detective, and he became a freelance script doctor. That boosted Hanley’s confidence, and he started honing a stand-up act that drew from his early classroom experiences, which eventually led to bookings across Canada and the U.S. “When I look at my life, it’s impossible to think of dyslexia as a curse,” Hanley concludes. “I look at the things I cherish most... and I can connect them all to my disability.” Throughout, Hanley matches that optimism with plenty of laugh-out-loud observations (“I thought adults collecting toys might be a UK thing, like getting blasted during the day and calling it Sunday roast”). This inspires. (Mar.)