Reviews

Boy Alone: A Brother's Memoir by Karl Taro Greenfeld

dkrane's review against another edition

4.0

As a fellow sibling of a brother with profound autism and limited verbal communication capabilities, I found myself surprised at just how seen I felt in this book. His observation skills are strong and astute and this is unflinching. It’s a frequently brutal and unpleasant read about the difficulties of a lifelong relationship with a violent sibling who provides little positive reinforcement in return in a relationship (something that differs a bit from my own relationship) and the darkness and anger is jarring to encounter. But I’m very grateful for Greenfeld’s honesty, his portrayal of the social history of autism in the US alongside his brother’s treatment, and his earnest plea for more care and research to be devoted to adult autistics—it’s pretty devastating how little funding, enrichment, and care is provided to the developmentally delayed once they are above a minimum-schooling age and Greenfeld is rightfully upset at the way systems have continually failed his brother and his family throughout his life. There’s no way around it: it’s hard raising/caring for/being/being related to someone who requires such a constant amount of care. This book captures that painfully and openly.

iamshadow's review against another edition

5.0

A stunning, shocking must-read, in particular for those who have read Josh Greenfeld's Noah trilogy.

twena2's review against another edition

4.0

Excellent memoir of growing up with a severely autistic brother. The book bogs down at times with technical details of the history of autism research, but flows quite nicely when the author describes life with his brother. The heavy impact on family dynamics comes through quite clearly. I recommend this book.

val_halla's review against another edition

4.0

This is a difficult book to read for anyone who cares for people with autism, and it is made more difficult by the false hope chapters toward the end. I literally closed the book and shouted to my partner, "He started to talk as a teenager! I never heard of that! Maybe it IS possible!" but an hour later had to retract my excitement; it was all a hoax. I understand the need for the author to play out the "what if?" scenarios, but it really was a cruel joke to play on his readers. In the end, this book sheds important light on what is a tragic reality for many people with autism: they don't all improve.

dornage's review against another edition

4.0

My mom gave me this book over a decade ago. Our eldest was still a baby and I didn't ever make time for it. I'm thinking my time as a parent, not just a sibling of a mentally handicapped person was probably a richer perspective though.

I was staggered as he chronicled this daily life with his nonverbal autistic brother. He shares the emotional and physical conflicts with him. He notes the ways he'd lash out with petty shoplifting, lying about homework incompletions, and general social struggles.

While his parents were famous-ish, this was set in the 60's-80's, and my sister had down's syndrome instead, the mirrored experiences I had to him still hit me like a gut punch.

He definitely went down a path that was more self destructive that I fully embarked upon. My heart ached for him and his family through their struggles that were much more extreme than those I experienced. Still, It was oddly comforting to know that the ease I perceived from other families may not have been a reality and the struggles I experienced were not a unique set of failures.

ajwoods's review against another edition

Gave up on this one. Too many other GREAT books out there.

imalwayswrite's review against another edition

3.0

Boy Alone: A Brother’s Memoir, is, well, a memoir about growing up with a severely autistic brother, who happens to be the most famous autistic kid in America, at least in the 1970s. The author’s dad, Josh Greenfeld, wrote three books about living with and exploring treatment options for an autistic child. There were appearances on the Today show and 60 Minutes, and articles in Time. Karl Greenfeld, the author, writes about growing up against the backdrop of his parents’ focus on his younger brother. It was OK, but, as Robot Chicken says about M. Night Shyamalan movies, “with a twist!” And indeed, there’s a twist, but you’ll have to read it for yourself to find out what it is.

bookhoarder76's review against another edition

1.0

I picked this book up because I am a mother of two and my youngest does have Autism. Both are boys just like in this book and I thought it would give me some insight on how my oldest may feel about this or at least how the author dealt with things. Also how the parents handled them aging and their youngest still needing care. That said I didn't finish this book I gave it 50 pages and couldn't read one more. It was terribly written the author was ALL over the place all the time I found it hard to keep up and I got nothing from it at all. Often I found it confusing even after reading the same paragraph back again and it still made no sense. I didn't think I should torture myself with 300 more pages and put it down. I will find another book to hopefully give me what I wanted from this one.

larabobara's review against another edition

3.0

I asked my pals at HarperCollins for this book because I used to babysit (in college) for two brothers, and one was autistic while the other was not. Although I was a bit on-again/off-again with my interest level on this book, I mostly found it fascinating and heartbreaking...and guilt-inducing, since I quit babysitting the brothers when the autistic one started getting old enough (and big enough) to hurt me when he was frustrated. Boy Alone is also eye-opening, to say the least, with regards to the giant holes in care options for the severely autistic - and, in particular, autistic adults.