"The Boy Who Loved too Much" Williams Syndrome

Williams syndrome is a genetic disorder resulting from missing chromosomes of an individual's DNA genome.  The disorder presents itself with physical traits of short stature, pear shaped body types tending to being overweight and "dwarf" like facial features of enlarged foreheads, pointy chins, gapped spaced teeth and flat fingernails.  The common disabilities stem from low I.Q.s, enlarged aortas & heart issues, persevating on objects (vacuums in particular), anxiety & phobias and a propensity for a rapacious need for physical & social contact.  People with Williams syndrome have little impulse control and a compulsion for physical contact with everyone; hugging everyone, inlcluding complete strangers.  Youngsters with Williams are unflappable, happy & guileless which renders them vulnerable to being abused. As adults, those with Williams need ongoing support & supervision.    Reporter & author of "The Boy Wh Loved Too Much" Jennifer Larson,  ponders life in a constant state of euphoria and its ripple affect on humanity.  They love & trust everyone unconditionally.  Would this be a lifestyle to aspire?     follows Gayle, the mother of Eli who has Williams & shares Gayle's hopes, heartaches & struggles.  First, the ideal of an irrepressible spirit of joy appears to have its appeal.  The reality of caring for Eli as a child, adolescent & planning for his future is all consuming, exhausting, frustrating, heartbreaking and relentless worry.  A parent with a child with a disorder that limits their indepence & abilities must relent their hopes for what parents of healthy, mentally capable children take for granted.  Gayle's life & Eli's became irrevocably entwined and she realized that this was harmful to both in the long run.  The social impulse for unconditional love for humankind is not a gift.  The social drive lacking the cognitive ability to use it effectively is a major obstacle to fitting into society that is so earnestly craved.  The author did an exceptional job evoking empathy & understanding the stresses, obstacles and of living with Williams and living with a person with Williams.  The various responses from those who interacted with Eli ranged from derision & disgust to compassion & empathy.  The salient achievement of "The Boy Who Loved Too Much" was  empathy for others and a scientific understanding of the Williams disorder.  I recommend this intelligent & poignant book for everyone.  The one failing was the unnecessary & religious proletyzing Larson included in her final chapters.  "Christians make an effort to embrace the same openness, trust, and wonder found in Williams syndrome following Jesus' admonition...". The quote Larson chose in the beginning best outlines the humanity found in this ephiphanous work.  "We got a future.  We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us...Because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you." (J Steinbeck)

Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Chabon's "Moonglow" Memoir Gleaning His Grandfather's Amazing Life

Michael Chabon (b Amer 1963) is a gifted writer.  Chabon is a successful novelist, screenwriter & columnist whose won a Pulitzer & Hugo Prize.  His book "Moonglow" is a memoir of his family rotating around his maternal grandfather's storytelling.  "Moonglow" received a Nat'l Book Nom.  It's a  stunning achievement for eloquent writing & bio of his grandfather; an extraordinary man.  It's significant that Chabon clarifies "…90% of everything he {my grandfather} ever told me about his life.  I heard during his final 10 days."  Michael informs us everything was kept to himself until completing his research & memoir.  Michael's mom brought her father home to care for him during his final months with terminal cancer.  The family patriarch Michael had regarded as stoic & measured, discloses his incredible life to his crafty story writing grandson.   The grandfather was a soldier in WWII.  He married a Jewish, French woman who survived the camps but not emotionally unscathed.  She suffered  mental illness requiring hospitalization.  The grandfather's fascinating life included work as an engineer.  He served in the military & time in both military & civilian prisons.  He worked various odd sales jobs, was a rocket scholar and highly intelligent.  Michael's mother is his grandfather's step-daughter.  Her heretofore undisclosed, disturbing origins; a child of Nazi rape, had remained concealed.  During the war, grandfather was assigned to capture technicians & men of science on the black list for the US to propel their own scientific agenda; in particular the development of rocket ships & bombs.  Wernher von Braun (b Germany 1912-1977) was grandfather's lifelong nemesis and focus of admiration.  Having come close to capturing von Braun in WWII, he succeeded in recovering many of WvB's hidden papers.  The two crossed paths in FL in 1975 when von Braun received the Nat'l Medal of Science.  Chabon's grandfather was a sagacious & remorseful man.  "von Braun should not be extolled & glorified without shouldering the shame of the slaughter of millions."  He also noted "Ambitious men from Hercules to Napoleon have stood ankle-deep in slaughter as they reached for the heavens."   "The ideals of justice, of openness, of protecting the weak - of fundamental decency for which I had fought,….meant nothing to the country that espoused them.  They were encumbrances to be circumvented in the exercise of power."  Glimmering throughout this enlightening memoir are Chabon's literary references to the mystifying beauty of our moon. "He passes silver moon trees like the skeletons of cacti." "Though the moon was high and nearly full, its light hung diffuse & opaque as if moonlight were only an inferior brand of darkness."  Despite all the amazing accomplishments, Michael's grandfather felt only failure. "You look back and you see all you did, with all that time, is waste it.  All you have is a story of things you never started or couldn't finish."  "Moonglow" is a masterpiece that radiates.

This Summer's Beach Book "Today Will be Different" by Maria Semple ("Where'd You Go, Bernadette)

Maria Semple (b 1964) had a runaway best seller with her 2012 novel "Where'd You Go, Bernadette." For those who loved this novel (and I'm not among you) you will have a lot more to cheer for and for those who only liked it (I'm among the later) you'll be delightfully surprised by Semple absurdist satirical look at the contemporary "Odd Mom Out" humor.  Semple is also a screenwriter & successful TV writer ("SNL" & "Arrested Development." Eleanor, the odd mom out heroine shares Bernadette's impactful personality that borders on madness.  Only, there's much more than the hysterical lambasting of today's helicopter parents seen through the eyes of less driven & more disorganized mom who doesn't make the bake sales.  Humor stems from Eleanor, an older mom who had a career as a moderately successful illustrator, finds love, marriage to Joe (a successful hand surgeon) and from her dealings with their son, Timby (auto-spell checked from Timothy.)  Timby is a precocious  10 year old who manages to manipulate his manic & self-destructive mom in ways both endearing & off-putting.  Timby is triumphant & stole the spotlight whenever he was on the scene.  The novel takes many twists & turns and looks back into Eleanor's childhood. Her childhood revolved around her beloved younger sister Ivy.  The sisters thespian mother whom they adored, died when they were young.  After their mom died, their alcoholic father moved with the girls to CO where he left them for weeks on end to fend for themselves.  Ivy is an interesting piece of work.  She lived a quixotic & nomadic lifestyle until she meets Bucky (inadvertently through Eleanore).  Bucky is an eccentric southern aristocrat. Ivy & Bucky marry soon after meeting.  Bucky is another unexpected & amusing character.  He stirs the novel with his haughty pretensions & indomitable personality.  Semple's fast paced writing makes this a novel you won't want to put down.  She captures the ambience of a dank Seattle, the alchemy of the art world and  the mid-life neurosis of a strong willed yet likable heroine.  Religion is denounced & then reconsidered by Joe, her steadfast husband and physician for the beloved Seattle Seahawks.  Adding to the pastiche  is Eleanor's love for poetry.  Her mentor poet rakes out a living wage at Costco.  The lampooned scenes in Costco are LOL & chillingly precise.  Semple's fondness for poetry favors Yeats.  "The best lack all conviction while the worse are full of passionate intensity."  Other astute observation are:  "change is the goal, insight the booby prize."  Most importantly, Eleanor realizes the importance of life is loving we'll the people you love most.  "Today Will be Different" is an insightful & enjoyable read you will polish off in a day or two.  

Irish Author Dolan Ryan's "All We Shall Know" A Remarkable Tale of Torment and Redemption READ IT!

Ryan Dolan (b Ireland 1977) is an acclaimed writer of novels & short stories.  Dolan's novel "the Spinning Heart" was listed for the Man Booker Award & received the Guardian First Book Award ('13).  "All We Shall Know" is a story that is filled with torment, grief, betrayal, misguided loyalty & convictions, compassion & redemption.  Ryan is a skillful writer who embodies the voice of our female heroine, Melody.  We meet Melody as a young teen while at a private Irish high school.  She is an outsider who forms a tight friendship with Breedie.  Both girls are looked down upon by the popular school set.  Ryan fully embodies the mindset of Melody.  He cleverly builds tension by structuring his novel charting the weeks & progress of Melody's pregnancy.  The narrative follows Melody's illicit conception, to the birth of her beloved baby.  Her developing pregancy coincides with the brewing feud between warring clans leading up to both the birth of her child & the cataclysmic combustion between opposing bloodlines.   As a teen, Melody's headis was turned by Pat, the 1st boy she ever kissed & later marries.  Their high school romance elevates Melody into the in crowd abandoning Breedie to fend for herself.  Both Melodie's betrayal to her friend and her illegal & adulterous affair are intimated early in the novel.   But, Ryan's stark & poignant writing slowly & painfully release all the hefty damages & remorse with unbearable madness & torment.  The observations on a marriage made at too young an age are solemn & sagacious.  "How did love's memory fade so completely from us?  We should have seen more of the world, less of each other, and more of other people.  We fastened ourselves too tightly together; we were two people sharing one life, so we had only half a life each."  Melody is aptly named for the pervasive melancholy & her failure to forgive herself her transgressions.  While pregnant, Melody attaches herself to a young woman named Mary who is shunned & brutalized by both her family & members of the clan into which she married for her damnatory disloyalty.  The novel at times is overburdened by religious fervor, barbaric clan violent retribution, cruelty & insurmountable shame & guilt.  Still, there is a prevailing strength, dignity & compassion that persists.  There is boundless love between Melody & her consoling father, between Melody & her unborn child & Melody with her selfless protectiveness over Mary.   Ryan's literary style is poetic and scorching.  "All We Shall Know" is an unforgettable, graceful, ambitious work that spans the range of humanity.  "No one can tell the story of a life or a friendship or a death or a marriage day for day for day."