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A review by readerpants
Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism by Ron Suskind
3.0
Hm. I imagine this is a fairly polarizing read.
The good: it was certainly readable, though slick. Kept my attention and kept me reading enough that I finished it in just a few days.
Everybody's journey, and everybody's pain, is different, and big to them. I think it's completely legitimate that this family struggled with their son's autism, and that it was genuinely challenging and painful. That said, it is really, really hard to feel deep empathy for parents who are so very privileged and well-resourced. So many folks I know with cognitive/developmental disabilities or ASD, from my time in community-based disability advocacy to working in customer service in the public library to friends' siblings, are dealing with all of this minus the tens of thousands of dollars for specialized interventions and care teams, or trying to deal with it on top of family and neighborhood trauma. The number of kids with autism in Somali families in Seattle is apparently significantly higher than the general population, for example, and those families are often also dealing with a whole host of other challenges, including unstable housing, language and cultural barriers, lack of high-paying jobs with good insurance, and deeply rooted systemic racism. Hard to hold that up against "no famous person wants to come talk for half an hour to the wealthy donors and parents at this special school." I don't think he's flippant or not cognizant of their relative wealth and the massive amount of cultural/class capital the family brings to the endeavor... but it really does create a gulf for me as a reader.
I don't mean to lack compassion or scoff at the challenges they faced. But. I would have liked a little more of Owen's voice and a little less east coast insider culture.
The good: it was certainly readable, though slick. Kept my attention and kept me reading enough that I finished it in just a few days.
Everybody's journey, and everybody's pain, is different, and big to them. I think it's completely legitimate that this family struggled with their son's autism, and that it was genuinely challenging and painful. That said, it is really, really hard to feel deep empathy for parents who are so very privileged and well-resourced. So many folks I know with cognitive/developmental disabilities or ASD, from my time in community-based disability advocacy to working in customer service in the public library to friends' siblings, are dealing with all of this minus the tens of thousands of dollars for specialized interventions and care teams, or trying to deal with it on top of family and neighborhood trauma. The number of kids with autism in Somali families in Seattle is apparently significantly higher than the general population, for example, and those families are often also dealing with a whole host of other challenges, including unstable housing, language and cultural barriers, lack of high-paying jobs with good insurance, and deeply rooted systemic racism. Hard to hold that up against "no famous person wants to come talk for half an hour to the wealthy donors and parents at this special school." I don't think he's flippant or not cognizant of their relative wealth and the massive amount of cultural/class capital the family brings to the endeavor... but it really does create a gulf for me as a reader.
I don't mean to lack compassion or scoff at the challenges they faced. But. I would have liked a little more of Owen's voice and a little less east coast insider culture.