'The Night the Lights Went Out' by Drew Magary

The Night the Lights Went Out: A Memoir of Life After Brain Damage by Drew Magary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I agree with another Goodreads reviewer who said 4.5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley for the digital galley.

Sports writer and novelist Drew Magary had a good life. He had just hosted the Deadspin Awards in 2018 and was at an after party at a karaoke bar in New York City when he went to use the restroom. Alone in a concrete hallway, he fell: he doesn’t remember it, and nobody saw it happen, but the result was catastrophic. He cracked his skull in several places, resulting in a traumatic brain injury.

The Night the Lights Went Out is Magary’s memoir of the event and its aftermath, and it reads like a page-turning, sometimes hilarious, novel. Obviously he recovered sufficiently to write this book, but after reading about the extent of his injuries, I wasn’t sure what that meant until the end.

Magary is thoughtful and doesn’t spare himself in his account but injects humor throughout. It’s an interesting--and, incredibly, entertaining--look at what it means to have suffered a traumatic brain injury and what it takes to recover. Highly recommended for anyone interested in TBI and the brain.


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