Looking is not seeing," writes Henry Grunwald in Twilight (Knopf; 130 pages; $20), and often we really see something only when it is about to leave us. For Grunwald, the beginning of such a loss came seven years ago, when a routine examination revealed that he was legally blind in his left eye and was one of roughly 15 million Americans who suffer from macular degeneration, a gradual diminishing of eyesight (often caused by age) for which there is no cure.
A lifelong journalist, Grunwald--once editor-in-chief of Time Inc.--responded to the challenge with brisk attentiveness as much as apprehension. He read...