No One's Perfect

This relentlessly upbeat memoir was a bestseller in Japan. In it, Ototake, a 24-year-old Japanese man born without arms and legs, recounts the story of his life and explains how he coped with disability and adversity: buoyed by his parents' generosity and love, he adopted an optimistic attitude and challenged himself to try anything. After a rocky start--his father was so worried about his wife's reaction that he did not allow her to see the baby for the first three weeks of his life--his parents did everything to insure that he would have a full life. Determined and loving, they managed to register Ototake in a mainstream school (rather than a special one for children with disabilities), launching him on an educational career marked by scholastic achievement and risk taking. In snappy, casual prose, he describes the creative rules his schoolmates drew up so that he could join their soccer games; he recounts playing junior high basketball on his stumps (he concentrated on passing, not shooting); and he describes how, in high school, his active athletic life almost jeopardized his academic career. Later, at Waseda University, he became an activist, speaking and writing about the necessity to create a ""barrier free"" environment. Well written, inspirational and politically relevant, this is a remarkable story. Photos not seen by PW. 50,000-copy first printing. (Sept.)