I finished Accidents of Nature the day before yesterday. Before I finished it, I read the author’s bio on the last page by accident (usually I wait until I finish the actual book before reading the author bio — not sure why).
At the very top of the jacket flap was a picture of a tiny woman in a wheelchair. I was instantly reminded of one of the characters in the book, Sara.
“Harriet McBryde Johnson went to schools for children with disabilities until age thirteen and to a cross-disability summer camp until the age of seventeen,” began the bio. This also sounded suspiciously like Sara. My eyebrow quirked and I continued to read:
She is still in contact with some of her friends from those times. Having continued her education in regular schools, she became a lawyer in 1985. Ms. Johnson has written for the New York Times Magazine and is a frequent contributor to the disability press. She is also the author of a memoir, Too Late to Die Young.
Suddenly it made sense to me why the author was able to portray Jean and Sara so well; Johnson wrote as if she had a disability herself because she does! I continued reading, not thinking anything else of it until the end of the book.
Sara becomes a world record holder for telethon protests, and becomes a lawyer. When I finished the book, I read the full author’s bio at the end of the book (as opposed to the jacket). In the full bio, it says that Johnson “holds the world endurance record (fifteen years without interruption) for protesting the Jerry Lewis telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association” — just like Sara talked about doing as a teenager and then did as an adult.
A couple of days ago, while reading, I thought that Sara seemed awfully strong of a character, even though the book was narrated by Jean. After reading the full bio, it dawned on me that Accidents of Nature was not just about Jean, a teenager with cerebral palsy — it’s about the author herself, only as a secondary character, observed by Jean. I thought that was very, very interesting, and very different; usually, authors put themselves completely into a novel (I’m looking at you, Stephen King), or they write a memoir, or a story with the main character a lot like them.
Altogether, I thought this YA novel was pretty cool. It is a bit dated, with references to segregation of blacks and whites and of disabled and “normal” people. (Clearly this is well before IDEA — most of the characters in the book are forced to attend Butler, an institution just for students with disabilities, which doctors insisted their parents send them to. Jean’s parents opted not to, luckily, and have lovingly taken care of her since birth (she has to be fed, dressed, showered, and helped with the bathroom because of her cerebral palsy). I could go on and on about IDEA, since I was once an Elementary Education major, but I won’t bore you.)
Getting back on track.
The novel has same great themes: fitting in, coming of age, self discovery, disabilities, coping with a disability while living in a world where they aren’t really tolerated or understood (just managed). Most of the abled people surrounding the campers treat them like something to herd rather than individuals.
Sara wants to be treated like a normal girl, but is treated like a child and wants to stand up for the rights of herself and the other campers. She comes to discover that she cannot change the camp and the way the people who run it think. Jean has always been treated like a normal girl, but comes to discover that she is not a normal girl and never will be.
It’s an interesting paradox.
It’s also interesting because I now think a little more about how I treat other people. I’ve always treated Mike‘s little brother like a normal kid, maybe with a little more care and concern. He suffered a couple strokes as a baby and was born missing a heart valve. Because of the strokes, he has some paralysis, some speech problems, has a bad leg from lack of growth on that side and surgery, and a few other problems. Mostly, he’s a happy, energetic (INSANELY energetic), loving little boy who kicks ass at Call of Duty (with just one hand!), collects miniature Marvel character figures, and gives great hugs. I wonder, now, if he is at all affected by his differences, or if he is yet too young to really understand. I truly hope not, but I wonder if it can be avoided. Even I, with my slight disabilities with my invisible illness, still know the difference between myself and someone without my chronic pain. They can lift things, do their hair, walk without being afraid of falling. Some days, I can’t.
This book also shows how truly far we have come in our society, and also shows that we need to go further. People with disabilities are just that: people. The disabilities are just extra.
Anyway, Accidents of Nature was a great read. It made me laugh (doubled over laughter) at times, it made me tear up, and it made me think. I always like a book that can do that.
