The Bullet Meant for Me: A Memoir

By Jan Reid

Book Overview

Abducted at gunpoint and fearing for his life, Jan Reid took a swing at the gunman and missed. A muzzle flashed, and the bullet that struck his spine would send his life careening out of controluntil he looked within himself, and to his family and friends, and found healing. When Reid's friends talk him into coming along to an Austin boxing gym for a workout, he has no idea it will send him down a path that will completely change his life. Inside, in a ring held together with duct tape and the blood and sweat of a group of gritty boxers, Reid falls under the spell of the sport. As his skills develop, his relationships with his fellow boxers deepen, especially with the talented young Mexican immigrant, Jesus Chavez. Through Chavez's promising career, and his own informal sparring, Reid plunges into the culture of competition among men. But then, just when Chavez achieves a number-one world ranking, he is deported to Mexico. Heartbroken, Reid travels to Mexico City to watch Chavez begin his comeback, when a bombshell of a different sort blows open Reid's own life: One night, after celebrating Chavez's victory in a shadowy part of Mexico City, pistoleros carjack the taxi he is sharing with his friends. In the ensuing scuffle, a bandit fires a bullet that pierces Reid's left arm, rips through his abdomen, and lodges itself in his spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Reid then confronts new kinds of struggles in which the rules are no longer clearthe battle to regain the ability to walk, to bolster his marriage, to untangle his newly complicated relationship with Mexico, a country he once loved, and to live with dignity. Inspired by the love and valor of his wife, Dorothy, and daughter, Lila, Reid also draws on lessons from the boxing ringphysical conditioning, discipline, controlling frustration, and overcoming fear. Thus begins Reid's physical and emotional journey to recover his strength, his masculinity, and his sense of self. Reid not only examines the effects of his physical disability but also offers a revealing portrait of the testosterone-driven worlds that collided on that fateful night. With the observational prowess of a journalist and the raw power of a fighter, Reid shares in these pages his discovery of the value of other kinds of strengthand his new perspective on the evolution of Western male culture and machismo alike. Rich with insight and vividly told, this is the remarkable story of a true survivor.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0767905954
• ISBN13: 9780767905954
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Broadway Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Writing with gloves on . . .

Writer Jan Reid has written an absorbing and sometimes harrowing account of a life suddenly altered by the shot of a gun in a robbery attempt. Although the book begins with that incident on a deserted street in Mexico City and ends with a return trip to the scene of the crime years later, it concerns itself as much with the author's interest in boxing and his friendship with a young Mexican-American boxer, Jesus Chavez. Sometimes a meditation on the dynamics of proving one's manhood with high-risk behavior, especially as these are played out in Texas, with its more violent history, the book is as much about friendship and marriage. Reid tells a story of growing up in north-central Texas and discovering boxing as a young man with no particular self-confidence or promise. Returning to the sport in later years, while working as a writer in Austin, he recovers a sense of purpose that agility in the ring had once given him, and he is able to share this feeling of accomplishment for an audience of readers who may have little sympathy for the sport. While you may never care to put on a pair of gloves yourself after reading the book, you can grant him the validity of his own point of view, that the sport harnesses physical power with a kind of grace and courage that in a well-fought match can inspire admiration. How his ability to throw a punch at an adversary determines the outcome of his encounter with an armed robber is not completely resolved in the book. Although the punch didn't connect, he may well have been shot - and killed - anyway. And for half of the book, as he recovers some use of his legs with surgery and physical therapy, while enduring staggering pain and the uncertainty of the future of his marriage, Reid's achievement in the book is a coming to terms with that ambiguity. And it doesn't give too much away to reveal that he returns to the gym in Austin, on the support of a cane, to put on gloves again. I don't know Reid, and he may be a very different man in person, but he comes across as someone you would like to have as a friend - courageous, and the last to admit it, coming to terms with the world in his own way and determined to take on adversity even while it means never fully overcoming self-doubt.

A Fine Memoir

This is an excellent memoir about growing up in Texas, manhood, the aftermath of violence, and the long journey of recovery. The Bullet Meant for Me is intelligent and insightful-highly recommended!