Looking Up

Rosemary Taylor, author of Chicken Every Sunday has captured Jane Boyle Needham's unconquerable spirit in this gay, lighthearted book.

One of America's most famous polio victims, Jane, as she says herself, was a rather frivolous person before polio entered her life. So it was that she first sought to spoof friends, family and other patients out of their gloom. Then later she went bravely on to create a home for her children, face her troubles with high good humor, and learn to live with the true spirit of religion.

Rosemary Taylor has captivated the revealing qualities of all the people who have made up Jane's world: her old nurse, known as the Old Last Gasp; the visitors who considered Jane a prize side show; the children who used the iron lung as a bongo drum; the amorous window-washer and murderous little boy; and any number of others who went in and out of Jane's goldfish bowl existence.