When the symptoms of his Parkinson’s disease are at their worst, Michael J. Fox can’t write. Or speak. Or stay still. With medication, these effects can be masked for short periods. It’s during these times that he wrote "Lucky Man: A Memoir", the proceeds of which will go to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Of course, the book doesn’t deal exclusively with Fox’s disease. He spends much space recounting his not-that-fascinating Canadian childhood; an undersize child with big-star dreams, he felt torn between his military-man dad’s ”battle-tested pragmatism” and his psychic grandma’s ”idealistic belief in destiny.” After achieving a modicum of fame as costar of the Canadian sitcom ”Leo & Me,” he dropped out of high school and headed for Hollywood.

At times, therapyspeak threatens to overtake ”Lucky Man” (”My self-isolating behavior did nothing to invite disclosure”). But Fox, who penned the book alone, has a savvy, smart-alecky voice of his own. ”I was the big news story over that holiday weekend,” he writes of the Thanksgiving ’98 revelation of his illness. ”My story, as we say in showbiz, had legs.”

He recalls his strategy for the announcement: ”I had one goal in mind: to give an honest account of how, over the last 7 years, I had integrated the disease into a rich and productive life. It was important for me to convey my optimism, gratitude, perspective, and even an ability to laugh about certain aspects of life with P.D.”

More Info: ew.com