IF YOU COULD SEE WHAT I HEAR

A well-told story about an unusually talented blind man and his struggle to ""reach out of the darkness for life."" A premature baby blinded by too much oxygen in his incubator (retrolental fibroplasia), Sullivan was brought up by overprotective, subsequently separated parents in West Roxbury, Mass. Experiencing""periods of deep frustration and vitriolic bitterness"" at first, Sullivan later benefited from active summers on the Cape and training at the Perkins School for the Blind (Joan Baez was on their staff then). An athletic, surprisingly versatile youth considering the ""inconvenience"" of his handicap, Sullivan distinguished himself as a championship wrestler and vocalist (he also water-skis and skydives on occasion) before going on to Providence and Harvard. A nightclub s(w)inger and recording artist thereafter, he's mellowed into a contented family man thanks to a convent-schooled wife who kept the faith. A simple and unobtrusively affecting testament--far from the self-pitying crowd.