Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw - The Library of the Uncommons

English language

Published July 26, 2023 by Grand Central Publishing.

ISBN:: 978-0-306-82906-2

A memoir penned with one good finger, Ndopu writes about being profoundly disabled and profoundly successful

Global humanitarian Eddie Ndopu was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare degenerative motor neuron disease affecting his mobility. He was told that he wouldn’t live beyond age five and yet, Ndopu thrived. He grew up loving pop music, lip syncing the latest hits, and watching The Bold and the Beautiful for the haute couture, and was the only wheelchair user at his school, where he flourished academically. By his late teens, he had become a sought after speaker, travelling the world to address audiences about disability justice.

Ndopu was ecstatic when he was later accepted on a full scholarship into one of the world's most prestigious schools, Oxford University. But he soon learns that it's not just the medical community he must thwart— it's the educational one too.

In Sipping …

A memoir penned with one good finger, Ndopu writes about being profoundly disabled and profoundly successful

Global humanitarian Eddie Ndopu was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare degenerative motor neuron disease affecting his mobility. He was told that he wouldn’t live beyond age five and yet, Ndopu thrived. He grew up loving pop music, lip syncing the latest hits, and watching The Bold and the Beautiful for the haute couture, and was the only wheelchair user at his school, where he flourished academically. By his late teens, he had become a sought after speaker, travelling the world to address audiences about disability justice.

Ndopu was ecstatic when he was later accepted on a full scholarship into one of the world's most prestigious schools, Oxford University. But he soon learns that it's not just the medical community he must thwart— it's the educational one too.

In Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw, we follow Ndopu, sporting his oversized, bejewelled sunglasses, as he scales the mountain of success, only to find exclusion, discrimination, and neglect waiting for him on the other side. Like every other student, Ndopu tries to keep up appearances—dashing to and from his public policy lectures before meeting for cocktails with his squad, all while campaigning to become student body president. Privately, however, Ndopu faces obstacles that are all too familiar to people with disabilities, yet remain unnoticed by most people. With the revolving door of care aides, hefty bills, and a lack of support from the university, Ndopu feels alienated by his environment. As he soars professionally, sipping champagne with world leaders, he continues to feel the loneliness and pressure of being the only one in the room. Determined to carve out his place in the world, he must challenge bias at the highest echelons of power and prestige. But as the pressure mounts, Ndopu must find his stride or collapse under the crushing weight of ableism.

Written with his one good finger, this evocative, searing, and vulnerable prose will leave you spellbound by Ndopu’s remarkable journey to reach beyond ableism, reminding us of our own capacity for resilience.

2 editions

KnitAFett reviewed Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw by Eddie Ndopu

I was challenged with this one.

5 stars

You don't realize how much you see things through only your perspective until you get the opportunity to see through a different lens. As an "up-right", this book really opened my eyes and made me have to do some reflections on how I can still lean towards ableist tendencies.

Eddie has spent his life advocating for disabled rights while the world has been content to stagnate and not grow. As a gay, black, and disabled man, there is a LOT that we can learn from his perspectives, and I'm grateful that he's taken the time to share his struggles with just getting proper accommodations for him to succeed at a school that he was welcomed to.

While this book mainly focuses on Oxford and their inability to understand and accommodate what care Eddie would need to succeed (with Oxford being fully aware of what his disabilities would entail …

You don't realize how much you see things through only your perspective until you get the opportunity to see through a different lens. As an "up-right", this book really opened my eyes and made me have to do some reflections on how I can still lean towards ableist tendencies.

Eddie has spent his life advocating for disabled rights while the world has been content to stagnate and not grow. As a gay, black, and disabled man, there is a LOT that we can learn from his perspectives, and I'm grateful that he's taken the time to share his struggles with just getting proper accommodations for him to succeed at a school that he was welcomed to.

While this book mainly focuses on Oxford and their inability to understand and accommodate what care Eddie would need to succeed (with Oxford being fully aware of what his disabilities would entail at the time that Eddie accepted the scholarship), it is an overall eye-opening and scathing reality check for those that don't have to rely on others to be able to meet their basic human needs. He covers the insane difficulty that he has dealt with to find a caregiver that can accept his autonomy and provide the care that is needed, the unwillingness of Oxford to ensure that he has the tools that are needed to have basic needs met like showers and even just being able to go to the bathroom, being told that he needed to crowdfund to cover said tools, and then having his fellow students saying that if Oxford paid for any of the tools that they were going to complain because THEY were not receiving extra money and "how is that fair!"

This is a book that I will be heavily recommending to everyone so we can all have a better of understanding what it's like to be disabled in a world still set towards ableism as a default. This is a perspective that I have sorely needed.