Brooklyn author to release ‘Now I See You’ at local bookstore
Brooklyn BookBeat
Brooklyn author Nicole C. Kear’s memoir “Now I See You,” which focuses on Kear’s journey as a legally-blind mother of three, will be launched at BookCourt at 7 p.m. on June 24.
The memoir show Kear as she steps out of the “blindness closet,” putting an end to a cycle of shame and secrecy. With the raw emotion of Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild” and the whip-smart humor of Tina Fey’s “Bossypants,” Kear explores the impact her deteriorating eyesight has had on her life choices, and how becoming a mother forced her to surrender the lie she’d been to.
Kear is a carefree 19-year-old when she realizes, on a romantic night at the beach, that she can’t see the stars her boyfriend points out. What follows — the diagnosis of a degenerative, incurable retinal disease the doctor says will render her sightless by 30 — doesn’t fit into her life plan. Dreading pity and pep talks, Kear keeps her vision loss hidden and focuses on devouring beauty and adventure while she still can. She joins circus school, travels, tears through boyfriends and becomes accustomed to flirting with disaster.
When she falls in love and gets pregnant a few years shy of her vision’s expiration date, she amends her carpe diem strategy, giving up recklessness in favor or relishing time with her children. Her secret is harder to surrender, yet as her vision worsens, harder to keep.