A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards - Hardcover

Bauer, Ann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743269497 ISBN 13: 9780743269490

Publisher: Scribner, 2005

Synopsis

Edward is nearly four years old when he begins his slow, painful withdrawal from the world. For those who love him -- his father, Jack, and mother, Rachel, pregnant with their third child -- the transformation of their happy, intelligent firstborn into a sleepless, feral stranger is a devastating blow, one that brings enormous ramifications not just for Edward and his parents, but also for their younger son, Matt, and soon-to-be-born daughter."A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards" follows this nuclear family as Rachel and Jack try to come to terms with their son's descent into autism (or something like it) and struggle to sustain their marriage under this unanticipated strain. Threaded through the novel, too, is the story of Rachel's deceased uncle Mickey, who may have suffered from a similar disorder at a time when parenting, pediatrics, and ideas about child psychology were entirely different from today's. As Rachel delves into her own family history in search of answers, flashbacks to Mickey's life afford moving insight into the nature of childhood disorders and the coping mechanisms of different families.A spellbinding, brilliantly nuanced portrait of a marriage and a family, this compelling drama also poses provocative, real-life questions: How much should a mother sacrifice for her children? How much intervention is too much? When do parents' ambitions for their offspring become counterproductive, even destructive? Who should decide what is best for the child? Is it ever worth sacrificing a marriage for a child?"A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards" is a carefully crafted, compulsively readable, emotional page-turner that reveals a remarkable gift for language and storytelling andenormous insight into the complexities and dilemmas of domestic life and parenthood. It is a striking exploration of love, faith, and sacrifice that will resonate with readers everywhere.

About this title

Review

""A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards" brilliantly and entertainingly portrays a family's emotional turbulence and the painful fact that much of a parent's life is fully and completely consumed with the stress and emotional trauma of having an atypical child in our society. Ann Bauer's gift of empathy clearly shines throughout the pages of this novel."-- Lynn Kern Koegel, Ph.D., cofounder of the Autism Research Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and coauthor of "Overcoming Autism: Finding the Answers, Strategies, and Hope That Can Transform a Child's Life"

About the Author

Ann Bauer is an essayist, journalist, and fiction writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and Salon.com, among other publications. Currently a visiting professor at Macalester College, she lives with her three children in Minneapolis. Please visit her website, www.annbauer.com.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743269497
• ISBN 13: 9780743269490
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288