My best friend in childhood was a victim of polio. Her legs were brutally scared from all the operations.
Philip Roth is a wonderful writer. I’m going to Amazon now to order “Nemesis.”
I contracted polio in 1956 and missed two months of the first grade. Lucky for me it was a mild case, but 50% of the nerves in my back were destroyed and I had to have weekly therapy for over 10 years.
To this day, I still get what I call “polio” headaches and my back burns like it is on fire when I bend over to do something like washing the dishes or pulling weeds.
By coincidence, the latest episode of Boardwalk Empire on HBO features a cute little girl that contracts polio with paralysis of her legs and describes the panicked, desperate response of her parents and other adults with children.