Andrew Solomon: “The conditions I’ve written about have been brutally stigmatized”

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 22:00:00 +0000

The chapters in Andrew Solomon's staggering and forever eye-opening "Far From The Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity" include a litany of difference and pain that few parents would wish upon their children -- or upon themselves as mothers and fathers: Deaf, Dwarfs, Down Syndrome, Autism, Schizophrenia, Rape, Crime.

But ordinary families, Solomon writes, find a way to love the most extraordinary children -- those conceived in rape, those with disfiguring illnesses, those who become criminals. No matter what, these kids are still theirs. Solomon's project is about difference, yes, but also our ability to love. And while his definition of extraordinary is sometimes jarring -- it is broad enough to include the transgendered, the autistic, children conceived in rape and also Columbine killer Dylan Klebold -- they are connected, for Solomon, by parents who found themselves with children very different than they expected. Which is to say, children very different from themselves.

Salon.com > Far From The Tree

Andrew Solomon: “The conditions I’ve written about have been brutally stigmatized”