Book info

• Title Being Sam Frears
• Author Mary Mount
• Year 2012
• Genres Non-fiction, Biography

This is Sam Frears' story. This is also the story of an actor, a rock-climber and a man born with an extremely rare genetic disorder only affecting Ashkenazi Jews. Sam was supposed to live to the age of 5. In February, he celebrated his 40th birthday. Challenged by blindness and a body under great stress, Sam Frears is trying to live an ordinary life under extraordinary circumstances His struggles and triumphs offer an illuminating look at the differences - and similarities - that make us human.

Thoughts

This is a Penguin Special, so it’s designed to be a short dip into a specific topic, in this case the life of Sam Frears. I stumbled across this book after reading Love, Nina, and doing a bit of research about that time and the family that Nina looked after. This book popped up as a nice mini biography of one of the children Nina was responsible for.

It feels a bit cheeky to call it a book as it feels more like an extended magazine article, but there’s no denying it’s a nice piece. Sam is inspirational and seems like a lovely guy, and it’s nice to see the author connect with his extended friends and family. Would have liked to delve a bit deeper but it was still a nice read.

Rating: 3 / 5