16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spaaz Meets the Downers, July 12, 2006
This review is from: Accidents of Nature (Hardcover)
"Accidents of Nature"
Harriet McBryde Johnson
Henry Hole & Co.
New York
Review by Taylor and Michael Bailey
It is not easy to place "Accidents of Nature" into a neat category.
Is it a novel for young adults? A treatise on disability culture? Or, simply, a well-crafted story of how one woman learns that, by accepting others, she comes to accept herself?
The basic tale is simple. Jean, a 17-year-old woman with Cerebral Palsy, has always attended school with "normal" classmates. Her protective family has done everything possible to ignore Jean's differences and provide her with all the trappings of life without a disability. Jean confronts some very real truths about herself, her disability, and her connection to other people with disabilities when she faces a week of summer camp. The typically named "Camp Courage" caters entirely to people with disabilities and it is they she must deal with during her week away from family, home and her regular circle of "friends."
We read this book with care. Partly because it is a good read and partly because our daughter/sister is 18-years-old and is a person with Down syndrome. Like the character, Jean, from the book, she has always been in
"regular" classrooms and had school friends with no disabilities. What we have learned is that her friendships only go so far. Her "friends," like Jean's,
only pursue her, or tolerate her, within the bounds of school. Although no one is actually mean to her, it is clear to everyone that she is different and that there are limits on how much time and energy her classmates are willing to devote. And, like Jean, she has learned a lot about herself by going to a place called Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp, which, like the fictional "Camp Courage" is for people with disabilities only.
Jean has been exposed to politically correct people and circumstance. So she is quite shocked when she meets Sara. Sara calls the camp "Crip Camp"
and promptly labels Jean as "Spazzo." Jean is quite distressed by these characterizations and her fellow campers whose facial deformities, speech, lack of coordination and odd behavior shock and, at the same time, intrigue her.
Throughout her week at Crip Camp Jean is exposed to "the world according to Sara." Sara ridicules the notion of charity, the pomposity of the camps sponsors and the whole culture of "do-gooders." Sara revels in her disability.
She also manages to get poor Jean into a lot of hot water with her comments and misbehavior.
As the week moves along Jean comes to see more and more that Sara's seemingly mocking and tasteless behavior carries with it a seed of truth that
no one has every expressed before in her presence. It becomes clear to Jean that, like it or not, Sara is telling the truth and that she, Jean, has a mysterious connection with all the other campers that regular school, determined parents and a blind eye cannot erase. Jean finds, at camp, a window on a whole new view of life that makes her happier and sadder, wiser and more curious and, mostly, more at peace with herself and the truth of her place in the universe.
As our family member moves into the world of young adulthood we see her experiencing some of the same things as Jean. To she and her pals with Down syndrome they are the "Downers." They like the "Down syndrome girls supper club" and other disabled-only shenanigans they cook up. She moves about quite skillfully in the world of the temporarily able-bodied but finds her real friends, the people who understand, the people she can be goofy with, among her peers with disabilities.
This book is not anti-inclusion. Quite the opposite. Jean learns that her life in the "real world" will never be real if it is based on a paradigm of rigid segregation from people like herself, or if she is only and always treated as some kind of exhibit that needs to be treated courteously but is never afforded a real place in the human family.
We were struck by what a well-established character Jean is. Her interaction with Sara is the catalyst for self-discovery. Jean, through the roguish character of Sara, is altered profoundly. The new discoveries she makes mature and change her is ways she had never considered.
This story is funny and sad and clear and obscure and, above all, wise. If you have a family member with a disability this book will awaken you to the fact that they are fully endowed human beings. People with their own inside jokes, bitterness and point of view. The book is a joy to read for anyone.
And, who knows, perhaps it will cause you, like Sara, to open your imagination to a complex and complete world, a world based on truth and not perched precariously on the edge of an artificially created world of telethons, charity and good intentions which, inevitably lead to isolation and artificial trappings.
It is a conclusion important to every young person and especially young adults with disabilities longing to find a path in life that is right for them.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Disability Power!, April 1, 2007
This review is from: Accidents of Nature (Hardcover)
Jean always believed that she was just like everyone else: a pretty, popular, high school senior. The fact that she used a wheelchair did not matter to her, or to anyone. That was before she arrived at Camp Courage. It is there that she meets Sara, an assertive, outspoken, disability rights advocate who makes Jean question everything she thought she knew about herself and the world. Jean begins to learn about disability pride and that being different can be an empowering experience.
I went to a camp for people with disabilities for many years. I always had a good time there and look back on that time in my life with fond memories. I always felt respected as a person with only a couple exceptions. Reading about Jean's experience made me glad that I went to the camp I attended. I do not think anyone there was evil. It was just interesting to read the seemingly divergent viewpoints of the campers and staff. I also found it fascinating reading about living with a disability in a time before any civil rights protections had been enacted for people with disabilities.
The epilogue was frustrating for me, until I realized this was probably a true story. Books like this make me realize how important it is for me to be involved in disability advocacy. I am very glad I read this book and even if you do not have a disability, I think the themes of discovering who you are and who you want to be are very relatable.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, October 23, 2006
This review is from: Accidents of Nature (Hardcover)
Jean feels fantastic about her place in the world. Why shouldn't she? She's seventeen, an honor student at Crosstown High School, her friends are great, and her family supports all of her dreams. But this summer, Jean spreads her wings, away from the cocoon of her parents, friends, and her small town, and spends time at Camp Courage--"Crip Camp," as the campers sarcastically refer to it--a camp for children with physical and mental disabilities, and she finds her confidence is shaken. For the first time, Jean must admit that, because of her cerebral palsy, she is different from the other kids at her high school.
Set in 1970 with an epilogue to bring the reader into the year 2000, ACCIDENTS OF NATURE is an excellent overview of how kids with a range of challenges--cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, amputations, autism, asthma, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy--feel condescended to by the world. For example, to make sure no one feels bad at the camp carnival, everyone
wins a prize at the games. Jean and her friend Sara refuse to play, on the basis that there is no challenge in playing a game if one is certain to win. The games then become a metaphor for Crip life, as Jean muses:
"When the games are rigged, does it make everyone a winner--or no one? ... I believe in competition. The program seems to be that handicapped people aren't up to it; we can only pretend to be winners. I don't want to pretend. I want to achieve, really achieve. Or I will take my disappointments just like anyone else" (p. 136).
Johnson captures the pain, anger, and fear of being shunned by the "normal" world in the character of Sara, and explores the naiveté of thinking that no one notices one's differences in the character of Jean. Weaving the two together through the bond of friendship, Johnson creates a captivating, educational storyline.
The overwhelming negative of this book--and the reason I am awarding four stars instead of five--is the epilogue. Without giving away the ending, I'll say that I'm not sure what the author was thinking when she wrote this epilogue; I can think of no other way to describe it but as frustrating, aggravating, and absolutely annoying. Ms. Johnson, what were you thinking?
Still, ACCIDENTS OF NATURE is an excellent book, overall, and well worth a reader's time; I recommend it with a strong four stars.
Reviewed by: Mechele R. Dillard
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