Sudden Paralysis and 'The Best Seat in the House'

In 1996, Allen Rucker had no real complaints: happily married, two kids, a house in West Los Angeles. At the age of 51, his career as a television writer was looking up.

Then one Tuesday, out of the blue, he started to feel a burning sensation around his waist. Inside an hour an a half, he was paralyzed from the waist down by a rare condition called transverse myelitis.

It sounds like a nightmare, and he had a few of those, but in his new memoir, Allen Rucker describes his new life with honesty, accessibility, and irrepressible impudence.

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