“Just because a family member has a disability does not mean they should not be treated with love and compassion. This beautiful book describes a father’s journey from a British Enlightenment reader and devotee to a a person who is accepting and loving towards his son and the journey his son is teaching him despite his many disabilities. Even though his son cannot speak he still communicates with the author in noticeable but small ways that bring joy to his father and make their relationship closer. Richer. Deeper. Fulfilled. From my personal experience of having been mute in the past and having disabilities as well I admire and cheer on anyone who writes a family history on disabilities and their experiences of living with it. A fantastic work! It isn’t East being disabled and having vocal issues. But language is also through the body and facial expressions something much needed nowadays when words fail us sometimes. Look at your family member and read their body language, facial cues, and motions. They are telling you something. So listen and appreciate the beauty in the way they are communicating.” ( )

I loved this book. Couldn't put it down.

This was an extremely emotional, but also healing, read for me as someone who also just experienced the unexpected, traumatic birth of my son who suffered an HIE event and subsequent brain damage. I am currently going through many of the same emotions the author did, and while it was sometimes quite difficult, I truly appreciate that this book exists so more awareness can be spread about birth trauma and that we, as a society, can look more understandingly on those with disabilities. A huge thank you to the author for going through what was - I imagine - a challenging (but hopefully therapeutic) experience writing this book. ( )

It has taken me a while to review this book, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since I read it. The author writes about how his profoundly disabled son, August, changed his perspective on what kind of life is worth living. I still don’t think I would have been able to come to the kind of place the author found in terms of finding grace in being a parent to this child, but then again I’m not sure I could manage to deal with being a parent of a typical child, either. Certainly an interesting and thought-provoking read.

This book is a beautiful account of a father’s intellectual and spiritual journey. Existential questions about life’s meaning are thoroughly explored through a prism of a non-believer and a rational thinker.
Chris’s brilliant storytelling sets a page-turning cadence. I was instantly hooked by the bursts of factual information followed by reflective and deeply philosophical analyses.
I read the book from the perspective of someone who met the author’s family. The acquaintanceship didn’t form on any specific date. When living in San Marco area I used to drive by the author’s house daily. On a couple of occasions I caught a glimpse of August using a Rifton device to walk along the driveway with the assistance of a caregiver. Comparing the timeframe of my living in the neighborhood with that of the events from the book, it would have been the time before the Relaxanoid pump was implanted in August. A few years later, my 13 year old daughter would tell me that on her early morning runs she always waved at Clio’s mom who walked the dog along the duck pond. This would have been after August’s death when the family welcomed the emotional support of a dog. I vaguely remember assuming that Clio was a girl either from my daughter’s school or the ballet studio. Just this past year my daughter was part of the ballet performance where Clio danced in the main role and I finally realized that it was Clio whose mom my daughter waved at during her morning runs. At that time I still had not known anything about August. Several months later, my husband and I found ourselves at a ballet fundraiser socializing with the author and his wife. In a conversation about post graduate education and Chris’s teaching career at UNF, the story of August came up in a context of his upcoming book. At a loss for words to express my sympathy and admiration for Chris’s and Ilene’s strength and poise, I uttered “I cannot even imagine...”. Now after reading the book, I sincerely hope those worlds didn’t come across as anything but the expression of deep compassion.
So tenderly and lovingly written, the book offered an enriching experience for me. As a non-believer myself, the subject of life’s meaning has always lingered in my thoughts. Following Chris’s initial logical approach aligned with Enlightenment movement was like traveling a familiar path but now with an articulate tour guide who pointed out new surprising nuances.
Chris’s turbulent and complicated search for a meaning of August’s life led him to self-discovery and personal growth where the path of logic and reason proved inadequate.
Chris mentions Socrates’s quote, “The unexamined life is not worth living" and implies that some may argue that a severely impaired individual’s life is not worth living. The quote always presented me with a problem which Chris has visited throughout the book. What level of ability (cognitive, physical, emotional, etc) of an examiner is sufficient in order to “examine life”?
While in a state of conflict between the rationality on the one hand and overflowing love and affection on the other, Chris recognized the deficiency of the logical approach and accepts that “the spirit dwells” in everyone. ( )