DEL PAPA'S PLACE
Book Launch
May 6th@2pm
Join us on Saturday May 6th at the Capreol Curling Club for the official launch of Jerry Lewis Told Me I Was Going To Die. This fun and funny essay collection focuses on finding the humour (and humiliations) of growing up with a physical disability in small-town Canada.
It doesn't sound like a particularly amusing topic but, somehow, Matthew finds ways to laugh at his predicament. There's the usual stories: predatory used-wheelchair salesmen, simulated drownings, hero-worship, and plenty of sitcom-esque misunderstandings…including the time he took two dates to prom and spent the night desperately keeping the unknowing rivals apart. No wait, that really was a sitcom episode. Matthew skipped his prom to read.
There are plenty of expected anecdotes in this book but it includes some surprises too. Toilet humour features prominently in one essay, while another revolves around guns and gun-culture—shooting is one of society's most inclusive sports. Nothing is taboo, not even those cringe-worthy moments any self-respecting author would leave out. Matthew tells the truth, no matter how foolish he looks, and invites the reader to laugh at his scars.
ABOUT
Matthew's Story
For many people even the thought of being disabled is a nightmare. Matthew gets that fear.
Sitting where he does, in a wheelchair for the past 40 years, he knows first-hand that living with a disability is not easy. But, rather than dwell on his physical handicaps, he has chosen to laugh at life’s ridiculousness. Whether it’s his ongoing feud with William Shakespeare, his elevator meet-cutes with famous celebrities, or his love-hate relationship with public transportation, Matthew finds the humour inherent in being handicapped.
Disability may be his lot, but he decided long-ago not to let it be his fate.
Filled with determination, hilarity, and even the odd insight, JERRY LEWIS TOLD ME I WAS GOING TO DIE is a giant raspberry to the disease that shaped him, but cannot define him.
Born with spinal muscular atrophy, Matthew Del Papa has been in a wheelchair since the early 1980s. A graduate of Laurentian University, past president of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild, and currently on the board of directors for Wordstock, he has been writing steadily since 2005.
An amateur local historian and part-time columnist, his work has been published in newspapers and magazines, as well as anthologies like Spooky Sudbury (Dundurn Press, 2013) and Nothing Without Us Too (Renaissance Press, 2022). He lives in Capreol.
JERRY LEWIS TOLD ME I WAS GOING TO DIE is his first collection of humorous essays.
