In his own words and writings, poet and journalist Mark O’Brien articulates the details of a life spent confined to an iron lung. Stricken with polio as a child, O’Brien’s body may depend on the pressurized intake and release of air, but he refuses to let this define his existence—despite the obvious challenges, he graduated from Berkeley and has a career as a writer. He is matter-of-factly forthcoming about his relationships to his work, his caregivers and friends, his body and sex, and even to the misperceptions of disabled people in general. This quietly triumphant portrait of one individual’s ability to transcend the physical confines of his life invites us to question what is and is not impossible.  ST