Elizabeth's Reviews > Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity

Andrew Solomon has written an epic book about families who have children who are "different": gay, deaf, dwarfs, down syndrome, autistic, schizophrenic, disabled, prodigies, criminals, transgender, and the product of rape. It might seem this is a grim topic for a huge (700 pages) book, but it is not. It is about coping, learning, triumphing...in most cases. There seems to be no way to celebrate the life of a criminal...and Solomon interviews one of the families of the Columbine shooters...but there is always something to be learned by the living.

This is a book about people and how we are all different. As I read it, I thought of the ways in which all my "normal" friends are different from one another and myself. Each of us falls within a range, yet we are different. We can celebrate these differences.


Parents have certain expectations of their children....boys will be athletic, their children will read, their children will dance. After parents read this book, they might instead look at their babies and find out who they are and celebrate their unique personalities.
It is a book about love.