Under the Eye of the Clock is the autobiography of Christopher Nolan, a fascinating and talented young poet who suffers from cerebral palsy. He is unable to walk or talk or write in the normal manner. Since Nolan lacks the use of his hands, this book, like Dam-Burst of Dreams, the book of poems that preceded it, was written by means of a typing stick affixed to the young man’s head.
The book succeeds on two levels: as pure artistry it is a tale well-told, in language that is bold and richly evocative; as a window into the world of the severely disabled it is both heartbreaking and inspirational.
Nolan has re-named himself Joseph Meehan and told his own story entirely in the objectivity of third person. This brilliant stroke allows him to avoid excessive self-pity while making his sufferings and triumphs bewitchingly real and deep. Nolan’s use of language has earned him comparison to such literary giants as James Joyce, Yeats, and Dylan Thomas. Like Joyce, Nolan stretches the meanings and implications of words, rearranges their spelling, and even invents new ones to communicate his moods and perceptions.
One of the most beautifully well-written — and emotionally moving — scenes in the book takes place when Joseph Meehan is three years old and crying because of his handicaps. Nolan writes that “he cried the tears of a sad man,” that “he jeered himself,” that he silently asked “his cantankerous why, why, why me?” Thus Nolan communicates this baby’s sense of being old in pain. But the scene does not stop there. Joseph’s mother defends herself against his mute condemnation of her in simple and heartfelt terms: “I never prayed for you to be born crippled, Joseph.” She assures him that she and his father love him “just as [he] is” Joseph decides that he will fan the little flame of his being loved, handicaps and all, by his extraordinarily warm and close-knit family. He then tells us that that decision “looked out through his eyes for the rest of his life.”
Nolan does not shy away from his own hurts and humiliations. For example, he tells the reader of his quest to go to a school for normal children and how he tried to smile gratefully at the principal but instead went into a series of uncontrollable grimaces and spasms. But neither does he dwell on his misfortunes. Left alone, his imagination “rescued moments all wobbled great boyish inventions of thought.” Looking at his mother’s drawings Joseph imagines himself riding broomstick with a witch and thinks himself into a picture of his father’s tractor.
Joseph Meehan is a keen observer of the world around him. In passages about his father’s boat building and fishing, his mother’s preparation of a Christmas turkey, and his own ride on his sister’s new pony, Under the Eye of the Clock by Christopher Nolan illuminates everyday life with a poet’s sensibility.
