by Bret Lott, 1991
UGH! What a STUPID book! No sympathy for any of the characters. About Jewel, a woman who has a Down’s Syndrome child in the 40’s – then called “Mongolian Idiot” – h husband and other 5 children. Starts off in Mississippi, then moves to L.A., back to Mississippi, then back to L.A. This book was tedious. Last paragraph:
“Only letters, labored, indifferent, yet full as she can make them of herself. Letters, I finally hear, singing with all they have, scores of them swirling round me in voices I’ll never understand, but beautiful all the same, God smiling and smiling and smiling.”
Brenda Kay, the Down’s Syndrome child, at age 41, bringing home a page full of “B’s” she had written.