PVLF 2025

Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox
on Jan 04, 2021

No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Maturity

Author: Michael J. Fox

Flatiron Books, 231 Pages, $27.99

Michael J. Fox was 29 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. He is now 59. Since the year 2000 the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research has raised $1 billion. It has become the leading Parkinson’s organization in the world.

You may have watched Fox in the hit sitcom “Family Ties,” or seen one of his hugely popular movies, such as “Back to the Future.” More recently he has starred in “Spin City, “The Good Wife,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm'” and others. But his acting career is only half of what he has accomplished. If you have not read any of his books you have only experienced part of Fox. His writing is as outstanding as his acting, for which he has won five Emmys, four Golden Globes and other notable awards. His three other books are well written, but his latest, “No Time Like the Future,” should not be missed.

His intelligence and outstanding use of language is on every page. (He is surely an inveterate reader.) For instance, when he is talking about how hard his exercises are with his physical therapist, he tells us the man’s exercises no doubt: “have been approved by Torquemada.” He describes how he has flattened himself on a particular New York City street, many, many times. In fact, he says he has fallen there so much, he has “left a patina of knee skin on the concrete.”

As a young actor, Fox had to live in a roach-infested flat in L.A. He is now enjoying a highly desirable prewar apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with his wife, Tracy Pollan, his beloved dog, Gus, whom he strives to keep “north of 100 pounds,” and his Parkinson’s Disease. He considers himself luggage in his wheelchair. “No one listens to luggage,” he says. It was when he decided to cast himself as a “working actor with a disability” that work began to come his way. He says, “…Instead of trying to kill it, I invited Parkinson’s with me on the set.”