Acclaimed disability rights activist Eddie Ndopu starts his unmissable memoir, Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw, with the dehumanization often faced by disabled people in routine experiences. Although a mid-shower fire alarm test is inconvenient for "uprights" (his "cheeky" term for ambulatory, nondisabled humans), it's a complete removal of autonomy for Ndopu as he pleads to be adequately dried and dressed, only for his stone-faced care aide to bodily remove him--naked and wet--from his residence.
Born in South Africa with spinal muscular atrophy and not expected to live beyond toddlerhood, Ndopu demonstrates how attending Oxford's master's in public policy program required "outperforming my own abilities" in nearly every situation, many of which would be difficult for even the able-bodied and privileged. Ndopu's memoir, penned with his one working finger, carries readers from his experience as a young queer man watching a Britney Spears video--which sowed the seeds of "my own dream of an extraordinary life on the world stage"--to his 2020 speech to a room full of global leaders at the World Economic Forum. In recounting his distressing experiences, Ndopu refuses to exclude his search for joy, unapologetically chastising a system that allows only struggle for disabled achievers, and prohibits their need for (and worthiness of) glittering celebrations, flawless makeup, and movie nights with friends. Ndopu's resolute voice shows with honesty and humor "that another, more extraordinary, and jaw-dropping way of existing" is possible if able-bodied individuals are willing to reckon with and work to dismantle long-enshrined systems. --Kristen Coates, editor and freelance reviewer