About 'Long Time, No See'
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'Long Time, No See,' published by the University of Illinois Press. Order online:
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"To face extraordinary challenges with grace and courage is remarkable in itself. To write about it as eloquently as Beth Finke does is a gift."
--Jean Thompson, author of Who Do You Love, Wide Blue Yonder and City Boy
Unlike many of life's dysfunctions, blindness cannot be hidden. Beth Finke's frank accounting of life from a blind perspective gives a much-needed modern view of the visually impaired in our culture. She reminds us that never giving up the fight assures victory, regardless of the actual outcome of the struggle.
--Marcus Roberts, jazz pianist and composer
Long Time, No See is certainly an inspiring story, but Beth Finke does not aim to inspire. Eschewing reassuring platitudes and sensational pleas for sympathy, she charts her struggles with juvenile diabetes, blindness, and a host of other hardships, sharing honestly her feelings of despair and frustration as well as her hard-won triumphs. Rejecting the label "courageous," she prefers to describe herself using the phrase her mother invoked in times of difficulty: "She did what she had to do."
With unflinching candor and acerbic wit, Finke chronicles the progress of the juvenile diabetes that left her blind at the age of twenty-six as well as the seemingly endless spiral of adversity that followed. First she was forced out of her professional job. Then she bore a multiply handicapped son. But she kept moving forward, confronting problems and perservering through a rocky training period with a Seeing Eye dog.
Finke's life story and her commanding knowledge of her situation give readers a clear understanding of diabetes, blindness, and the issues faced by parents of children with significant disabilities.
"Beth Finke's beautifully written memoir catches you up in a life that is exciting, moving, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, full of love and disappointment, charismatic and riveting."
--Mary McHugh, author of Special Siblings: Growing Up with Someone with a Disability
"Finke does a beautiful job of bringing readers into her world, a world of love and fear and hope. If you have ever been challenged with a disablity, or know someone who has, or if you want greater insight into the human spirit in general, read this book"
--Andie Dominick, author of Needles: A Memoir of Growing Up with Diabetes