Overview

Joel Yanofsky tried for years to start this memoir. ""It's not just going to be about autism,"" he told his wife, Cynthia. ""It's going to be about parenthood and marriage, about hope and despair, and storytelling, too."" ""Marriage?"" Cynthia said. ""What about marriage?"" A veteran book reviewer, Yanofsky has spent a lifetime immersed in literature (not to mention old movies and old jokes), which he calls shtick. This account of a year in the life of a family describes a father's struggle to enter his son's world, the world of autism, using the materials he knows best: self-help books, feel-good memoirs, literary classics from the Bible to Dr. Seuss, old movies, and, yes, shtick. Funny, wrenching, and unfailingly candid, Bad Animals is both an exploration of a baffling condition and a quirky love story told by a gifted writer.

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9781611454147

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With self-deprecating humor and searinghonesty...Yanofsky reveals the painful frustration and the powerful bond oflove between him, his wife and their 11-year-old autistic son, Jonah. Aneloquent memoir... [Bad Animals] ... also addresses the broader issues involvedwith parenthood. --Kirkus Reviews With self-deprecating humor and searing honesty...Yanofsky reveals the painful frustration and the powerful bond of love between him, his wife and their 11-year-old autistic son, Jonah. An eloquent memoir... [Bad Animals] ... also addresses the broader issues involved with parenthood. --Kirkus Reviews Joel Yanofsky hastaken on just about the hardest of literary tasks, writing about lifewith an autistic child without succumbing either to sentimentality orbitterness producing a book that seems both truthful, in its refusal to put toobright a face on a hard reality, and tender, in its insistence on the mysteriesof love. --Adam Gopnik, author of The Table Comes First and Paris to the Moon Joel Yanofsky has taken on just about the hardest of literary tasks, writing about life with an autistic child without succumbing either to sentimentality or bitterness producing a book that seems both truthful, in its refusal to put too bright a face on a hard reality, and tender, in its insistence on the mysteries of love. --Adam Gopnik, author of The Table Comes First and Paris to the Moon Writers show their capacity for greatness when theypoint their talent at something they love. Joel Yanofsky has done just that: written a marvellous book about a child he adores his son. --David Gilmour, author of The Film Club

Joel Yanofsky has taken on just about the hardest of literary tasks, writing about life with an autistic child without succumbing either to sentimentality or bitterness producing a book that seems both truthful, in its refusal to put too bright a face on a hard reality, and tender, in its insistence on the mysteries of love. --Adam Gopnik, author of The Table Comes First and Paris to the Moon

Writers show their capacity for greatness when theypoint their talent at something they love. Joel Yanofsky has done just that: written a marvellous book about a child he adores his son. --David Gilmour, author of The Film Club

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