By Corrine Morgan-Thomas with Gary Prozek; 325 pages. Subtitle: Watching My Autistic Sons Grow Up -- and Take Their First Steps Into Adulthood
If you saw the Lifetime TV movie of the same name from a few years back, starring a pre-High School Musical Zac Efron as an autistic runner and Mary-Louise Parker as his mom, you know the basic outlines of the story told in this book. As is usually the case with real life, though, the full story is more complex and messy than the made-for-TV version. You'll find plenty of inspiration in it all the same, though, and maybe all the more.
- Deals with issues of teenagers and young adults on the autism spectrum
- Considers strengths and weakness of kids with special needs
- Recounts triumphs in areas where failure is too often expected
- Despite challenges and setbacks, it's a generally hopeful tale
- Gives a more complex look at a story told in a TV movie
- Due to longer view and greater range of story, probably less compelling than a TV movie, too
- Bouncing around in time can make following the story confusing
- Light on details about programs that helped
- Readers who expect a cure or a triumph over autism will be disappointed
- Chapter One: Signs and Wonders
- Chapter Two: Building a Fortress of Solitude
- Chapter Three: Waking Up to Help and Hope
- Chapter Four: A Matter of Choice -- Learning to Pick My Battles
- Chapter Five: Refining Your Instincts
- Chapter Six: Tilting at Windmills
- Chapter Seven: Big Gifts Come in Small Packages
- Chapter Eight: Flying Solo
- Chapter Nine: Give and Take
- Chapter Ten: Give and Take
Most autism memoirs have a predictable trajectory, starting with diagnosis and moving through denial, grief, and battles for a cure or services or acceptance. Miracle Run, on the other hand, starts at the most triumphant point in its narrative -- when one of Corrine Morgan-Thomas's autistic twins has unexpected success at a high-school track meet -- then jumps backward and forward in time to tell bits and pieces of the family story. The diagnosis, early educational hurdles, brushes with child-abuse charges, broken relationships, advocacy and activism, Hollywood offers, college challenges, all are eventually covered in an evenly paced but sometimes switchbacked marathon of a book.
If you generally enjoy memoirs by parents of children with special needs -- and I'll admit, I do -- this lengthy one is worth the time. There's plenty to relate to, from nightmare supermarket trips to special-education battles to goofy family times together. It would have been nice to get more in-depth information on the programs Morgan-Thomas found helpful in managing her sons' autism -- the story is often heavy on anecdote and light on details -- and if you're thinking that the Miracle Run magically solved all this family's problems, you've been watching too much TV. The love and acceptance and growth experienced by this mother and her sons make it a pretty inspiring read nonetheless.
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