Journey to Ithaca : A personal memoir

Abstract

Journey to Ithaca is an extraordinary memoir about an extraordinary life. Of its author it may well be said, in Shakespeare’s words (from Henry VI, part I, aptly quoted in the prelims): “Who would e’er suppose [he] had such courage and audacity?” From the outset, William Rowland invites his readers to accompany him along his personal journey to Ithaca. It was at Ithaca Mansions in Sea Point, Cape Town, that, at the age of five, a happy little boy lost his vision in consequence of a gunshot through his temple, severing his optic nerves. That was, definitively, the day the light went out. With enormous courage and determination William approached life head-on, achieving what many others might have found too daunting to attempt. Writing with restraint and dignity in Journey to Ithaca, William tells his life story in a series of short chapters marking significant stages and events of his life, recounting the challenges and the achievements in equal measure, and often with gentle humour. What shines through most strongly from this memoir is that at no time has William allowed his blindness to define or limit him and certainly never to deny him the fullness of experience and adventure encountered by the sighted. Intellectual, leader, innovator, activist, author, mentor, as well as loving father—William Rowland fills each of these roles with consummate ability and enthusiasm. His life story thus far, as told in Journey to Ithaca, will inspire all who read it, whether blind or sighted.