Offspring, Non Fiction, by Andrew Solomon

Offspring was intended to examine how parent's cope with their children who are very different from themselves.  In other words, what happens when a parent has a "horizontal" child rather than a "vertical" child.  Let me translate for this misguided author:  how do parents love their child when they are born with disabilities or sexual orientations different "horizontal" from themselves.  Let me stop you from reading this book.  It is both self-indulgent & condescending .  I have respect and admiration for families whose children have disabilities but I expect nothing short of love & support for their offspring.  I expected to be inspired and learn something about patience & humility.  Instead, I got nothing but self-flagulation in what seemed to me a cathartic exercise for the author to deal with his demons; depression & homosexuality.  "Self-acceptance is part of the ideal but without familial and societal acceptance, it cannot ameliorate the relentless injustice to which many horizontal identity groups are subject."  Mr. Solomon (the name has not lost its irony on me,) this is neither enlightening nor profound.  I gained nothing from your prosletytizing. "The world is made more interesting by having every sort of person in it.  Life is enriched by difficulty, love is made more acute when it requires exertion."  I would have been better off sitting around the campfire singing "We are the world."   Tolerance & empathy for others is vital.  Reading this drivel is a waste of time.