GIMP: The Story Behind the Star of Murderball

by Mark Zupan, Tim Swanson

Overview

College soccer star Mark Zupan had been out drinking one night and had passed out in the back of his best friend's pickup truck when his friend got in the driver's seat, decided to take the truck for a spin, and accidentally crashed it. Thrown into a canal and stuck in frigid water for fourteen hours, Mark was finally rescued and learned soon after that he'd broken his neck. He'd most likely be a quadriplegic and spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, doctors told him. At first Mark's only goal was to walk again. When that proved impossible, he fell into the depths of anger and despair, retreating from the world and the people closest to him. But love, friendship, and a new sport, quad rugby (a.k.a. "murderball"), helped Mark create a new existence that's truly exceptional.

Gimp, the no-holds-barred memoir of a Paralympic athlete and the star of the Academy Award–nominated documentary Murderball, is an inspiring, defiant, and revealing celebration of spirit and will that confounds readers' prejudices by offering proof that a guy in a chair can still do amazing things: have sex with his girlfriend, party with his friends . . . even crowd-surf at Pearl Jam shows.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061127694
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/27/2007
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	676,779
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Mark Zupan is a Paralympic medal winner and the star of the MTV/ThinkFilm documentary Murderball. He lives in Austin.

Tim Swanson is the West Coast bureau chief for Premiere magazine. He lives in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

One drunken nap in the back of his best friend's pickup truck landed Mark Zupan in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. But from the start, this college soccer star refused to take his fate lying down. With fierce resolve, he transformed himself into an Olympic medal-winning quadriplegic athlete and, less intentionally, as the star of the Sundance Audience Award winner Murderball. This memoir by the quad rugby standout rings out his defiance, his spunk, and his courage.

Mark Zupan uses fast, effective prose to tell the story of how he became a quadriplegic and ended up a world-class player of full-contact wheelchair rugby…You have to admire Zupan. He never apologizes for his crazed behavior or snivels about its consequences. He's blisteringly honest about the long-drawn-out period of grief, anger and rehabilitation he suffered, and he displays an astonishing lack of rancor toward Igoe. A smart, fierce adrenalin-addicted athlete, he is also a fascinating character.
—The Washington Post

Juliet Wittman

Paralympic medal winner Zupan's hope in writing this book is that "when people read this book, they will be reminded that you can stage a comeback even when you think you've lost everything." However, it's misleading to say you've "lost everything" when, in fact, you threw it away yourself. The best thing about this memoir, cowritten with Swanson (West Coast bureau chief, Premiere magazine), is that it is honest in every graphic detail, from erections to elimination but it's certainly not inspirational. Zupan began his freshman year at Florida Atlantic University as a star soccer player and a hard partier. But all the fun and games came to a sudden end when excessive underage drinking led him to pass out in the bed of a friend's pickup. The driver, also drunk, lost control of the truck, causing the still-unconscious Zupan to fly out and roll down an embankment and into a creek. He broke his neck, nearly drowned, and became a quadriplegic. His "comeback" is that he reentered college; rejoined the athletic world playing a wheelchair sport called quad rugby, a.k.a. murderball; and started partying again. Not a necessary purchase. [Zupan is the star of the MTV/ThinkFilm documentary Murderball. Ed.] Renne Axtell, Independence, MO Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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