Great Read; Important Story
This is a book about children living in a nursing home and the adults around them. Nussbaum captures the messy complexity of the pain and joy of life for these particular characters. And, she does it very well. Each character has a distinct and compelling voice; they often have you laughing out loud. No one else has written a novel from inside a children's nursing home from the point of view of the children who live there. Her characters are believable, wonderful human beings who are also silly, short-sighted, fearful and a host of other not-so-charming human traits. I was drawn into the book by a sassy little girl with a life very different than my own. This child opened the door and the other characters walked me into a plot which was compelling from start to finish. I do a radio program on disability and have interviewed hundreds of people who live with disabilities so I speak from some experience when I say that Nussbaum has an ear for the humor and an eye for the reality of disability. With an utter lack of sentimentality, Nussbaum tells it like it is; what happens in these institutions should not happen. She captures the messy complexity of the pain and joy of life for these particular characters. And, she does it very well.