By Ralph James Savarese; 463 pages. Subtitles: A Memoir of Autism & Adoption; On the Meaning of Family and the Politics of Neurological Difference.
When Savarese and his wife set out first to help a mother and her child stay together, and then to bring that child into their life as their adopted son, they had no idea what traumatic life experiences lay hidden by the boy's autistic silence. Facilitated Communication techniques help young DJ come to terms with his past in a tale full of tragedy and triumph, often tied tightly together.
- There's a really compelling story here about a child learning to communicate
- Makes interesting observations on ways to treat children with both autism and PTSD
- Writing is skillful and thought-provoking
- Untangling the threads of DJ's past life and trauma make for a good mystery
- Excerpts from DJ's writing, including a final chapter written by him, let his voice come through
- It's quite long, much longer than it needs to be
- The author goes off on tangents that, while interesting, are less interesting than the main tale
- You have to at least accept the possibility of Facilitated Communication to buy into this narrative
- Above and beyond the FC issues, there's a lot of creative interpretation of DJ's words and thoughts
- Introduction: Some Get Eaten
Chapter 1: Severe and Profound - Chapter 2: More
Chapter 3: Have You Tried In Vitro? or What's in a Name? - Chapter 4: He's So Fine
Chapter 5: Guidance - Chapter 6: Read the Book
Chapter 7: Poking - Chapter 8: Have You Missed Living With Me?
Chapter 9: Try to Remember My Life - Chapter 10: Buttoned-Up Shirts
Chapter 11: Throw Dad Away - Chapter 12: Charlie Needs Our Help
Chapter 13: The Sad Hurt Great Brother - Chapter 14: Grief Isn't Easy
Chapter 15: Reasonable People - Chapter 16: It's My Story
There's a good, tight, compelling 250-page book in Reasonable People -- a cross between a human interest piece and a whodunnit, as a child with autism manages, with the help of his adoptive parents and Facilitated Communication (FC), to overcome the trauma of abuse and the silence of autism.
Unfortunately, the final book is 463 pages long.
Maybe it falls prey, in its way, to the charges that some level against FC -- that the assistant who guides the hand of the person with autism may subconsciously influence the choices of letters, and add his or her own hopes, expectations, and prejudices into the mix. In trying to tell his son's story, Savarese maybe inserts too much of his own.
Not that there's no place for the parents here. The experiences of Savarese and his wife in taking a mute and abandoned child under their wing and, when efforts to reunite him with his mother fail, adopting him themselves are interesting and inspiring, as is their tireless advocacy on his behalf. But there's also, along the way, an awful lot of psychoanalyzing and philosophizing and politicizing, extended family tales and settling of old scores. It's no disrespect to Savarese to say that DJ's is the most interesting story here, and maybe some of the rest could have been pruned or saved for another book.
Still, if you're interested in Facilitated Communication, or special-needs adoption, or the challenges of psychotherapy for traumatized children who perseverate on the past when you try to talk them through it -- if you're even just a fan of special-needs memoirs of any stripe -- this volume certainly has its rewards. It adds an interesting voice to the debate on what people with autism are capable of, and what inclusive education, and FC, can do.
