Customer Reviews

The Broken Cord (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)

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It would be a shame if the circumstances surrounding the author's death cast a shadow over this fine book, because it is beautifully written, deeply felt, and a devastating account of the impact of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) among Native Americans.

Michael Dorris, a young unmarried college teacher and writer, adopts a Native American boy "Adam" whose developmental problems, he believes, are the result of poor nutrition, poor health care, and lack of proper parenting. In time, however, he discovers that Adam was born with FAS, a condition Dorris knows very little about. Believing that proper care can reverse the effects of FAS, he takes on the daunting and nearly futile task of helping Adam achieve a "normal" boyhood. The damage done, it turns out, is irreversible; Adam is almost maddeningly unable to learn simple tasks and responsibilities. FAS-related health problems, including seizures, often turn merely difficult days and nights into nightmares for the single father.

The book Dorris writes is meant as an eye-opener for readers who are unaware of the potential harm in consuming alcohol during pregnancy. Given naturally to research and study, he shares with the reader much of what he learns about FAS and the Native American culture that has had such a fatal connection with alcohol. To that extent, this is almost a textbook on the subject.

But this is also the story of a father and son, and most poignant, for this reader, is the relationship between them that is a thread throughout the book. Dorris never surrenders to the barriers that exist between him and his son. Having taken responsibility for Adam, he gives his all to making even the smallest difference in the boy's life. It's a heroic effort and often heartbreaking.

This is a vivid and moving account of a father's initiation into (single) parenthood and the rigorous journey of seeing a handicapped child into adulthood. It is both laugh-out-loud funny and profoundly sad. This book works best on the level of personal story-- what it means to live with a child who will never be normal, as you both fear and deny the reality that your kid is handicapped. (As the adoptive mother of a girl who has a constellation of emotional and psychological problems, but with no definitive cause, I could relate to Dorris' experience.) For me, the book bogged down in Dorris' lengthy research findings pertaining to FAS and its impact on native american communities. Dorris adopted his son, Adam, with no forewarning of Adam's FAS diagnosis and wrote the book during the early days of FAS research. Therefore, this info. was groundbreaking at the time of the book's publication, but it is dated today. Because this book is the story of only one individual-- one who was extremely handicapped by his condition-- it paints a pretty depressing picture of FAS, and the book is NOT one I would recommend first to anyone who had just taken on the responsibility of raising a child with FAS or FAE. There are more ways to treat and support individuals with FAS/FAE than were available when Dorris was raising Adam, and foster and adoptive parents of FAS/FAE children need to be pointed to resources that give them a broader view of the possibilities for their youngsters.

I first read this book in early 1990. Prior to reading this book, I did not know about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Effect (FAS/FAE). Mr. Dorris gives a good overview of this tragic condition and his references throughout this book certainly augment the points he makes. I like the lyrical tone Abel's (called "Adam" in the book) story takes when the author includes references to nature and natural phenomena. This book is also culturally enriching by providing glimpses of Native American traditions, e.g. Adam's naming ceremony and the gatherings the Dorris family takes later in the book.

Two things saddened me deeply about this book in addition to Adam's congenital condition. The author was involved in a very unfortunate controversy and committed suicide a few years ago. Adam was run over by a car and killed. It made for a very tragic postcript to the lives of the Dorris family and to all those who cared about them personally.

I have an adopted son with possible FAE not FAS. The recent studies are saying that FAE is just as bad as FAS because you don't know what it is so readily. My son was the product of a 17 year old drug addict/acoholic who lived on the streets prostituting. So far he is a happy healthy boy, but is tremendously developmentally delayed. He's 8 years old functioning around age 3-4. He will never be OK. When I'm so sad or overwhelmed with his behaviors I like to sit down and watch the TV version (which I recorded) of The Broken Cord. It truely gives me strength to carry on. I have subsequently fallen in love with Jimmy Smits who played Adam's dad on the show. What an excellent job! He portrays, so well, the true frustration these innocent little people bring into your life. I especially relate to the "choo-choo" dialogue and how it started out so cute and became the biggest source of aggrevation. My son does similar things and on occasion I just sit and cry. Michael Dorris did the world a wonderful job of getting the medical profession to begin thinking about this terrible syndrome. Let's keep working! Michael, despite the reasons for your death - you are truely missed and highly respected. You understand these children more than anyone else I know. Doctors - wake up!

Dorris's intent in writing this text is to enlighten people about the disease called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. His primary focus is how Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is affecting the Native American culture. However, he does mention how this disease knows no limits of culture and is occurring across all nationalities.
The various parts of the text are divided into Dorris's denial, tolerance and then acceptance of the effects of FAS. Dorris writes about his life as a single parent, when at the age of 26 he decides to adopt a child. Dorris was informed about his adopted son Adam having problems developing. He thought that with enough love and nurturing Adam could overcome any obstacles. The beginning part of the text Dorris is in denial. He blames Adam's shortcomings on a slow start, bias tests, and incompetent assessments. Dorris writes, "I periodically concluded that Adam's teachers must be incompetent, badly trained, or lazy when they failed to stimulate his performance in the classroom."(p. 65)
Dorris has trouble even thinking that his son might have a problem. Once Dorris adopted two more children, he noticed that the other children developed very fast in comparison to Adam and soon were at the same level of Adam. He still held out hope that Adam would have some hidden talent that would balance out his shortcomings. This is the part of the text where he tolerated the fact that Adam was different than most children his age. Dorris still had not grasped the extent of the damage the drinking Adam's birth mother had caused. Dorris does seem to have a breaking point when he leaves with his wife to a dinner party and the children are left alone. At this point Adam is 19 and he breaks a pipe in his parents' bathroom. He then turns off the light, shuts the bathroom door, and goes to his bedroom. Dorris and his wife come home to find the house flooded. They clean up the mess without saying a word and go to bed. This event is their final defeat at thinking Adam will ever have the independence of living alone.
From this point the text takes a turning point where Dorris starts to accept that Adam is the person he is and no amount of love and nurturing can completely erase the effects of FAS. Dorris and his wife find a vocational program where Adam can find employment and living accommodations. Adam works at a bowling alley and Dorris goes to visit Adam on a lunch break. Dorris has partially accepted that Adam's development and choices will not change. On the other hand, as a parent he cannot fight the urge to give unsolicited advice. I do not view his comments on how Adam should eat or take care of himself better as Dorris still in denial. I believe that a parent will always have the insatiable urge to give unsolicited advice no matter what developmental stage their child is at.
I would recommend this text to other students with the explanation that this text was written when FAS was very new and when little information was out about FAS. This text gives a good start into what FAS is and what are the effects of FAS. The text also goes into depth the love of a parent for a disabled child so that a future teacher can further understand from what experiences a parent might come from.
The strengths of the text include Dorris not sugar coating FAS and his ability to reveal all the ups and downs of Adams life as well as his own. In my personal life, I am looking at becoming a mother and the plain way he has explained the dangers of even occasional drinks during pregnancy have made me scrutinize my old beliefs. I can also empathize with Dorris and Adam's accomplishments and disappointments through the style of writing Dorris employs in his text.
The main weakness of the text is that most of the data is outdated. The book was written about 14 years ago. As stated earlier, this text is a good start to understanding FAS. However, this text starts only a foundation to understanding FAS. Further research is needed to fully understand the current techniques for working with a child that suffers from FAS.
While reading this text I kept asking myself how I would implement the information given into teaching procedures within my classroom. The main point I kept coming back to was a quote stated, "Perhaps the single most important coping skills when working with FAS/FAE is a sense of humor."(p. 347) If a sense of humor is not kept then there is no focus. As an educator or parent, if there is no sense of humor then all sanity is lost. The stress of perfection will put too much pressure on the child as well as the facilitator.
My overall impression of this text is one of mixed emotion. At first I thought the text would just contain depressing stories with some insight. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself laughing at certain parts like when Dorris spent a week making the perfect train cake for Adams sixth birthday and the comical fiasco that followed. After reading the text I was intrigued about how Adams future had turned out. I investigated and was saddened to read that Adam was killed at age 23 in a hit and run accident. I was further upset to read that Michael Dorris committed suicide when abuse charges were pending. Real life does not always paint a beautiful picture when we search for truth and hope.

The book is well written and interesting.
You may not want to read further if you want to experience the book as it was intended to be read. It is especially interesting considering that a few years later (in 1991), "Adam" was hit by a car and killed, Dorris and Erdrich were accused of child abuse by their second son, and the couple divorced in 1995, the same year Dorris entered alcohol treatment. In 1997, Dorris committed suicide.

This memoir/ public health history is engaging, disturbing and educational. It touched on many things to which I can relate...having a degree in anthropology (as the author does), being a former social worker and currently in school to become Special Ed. teacher I want to give this book to everyone I know who doesn't live in my world and see these things happening around them and to those who do live in my world so we can start a discussion about how to combat this tragedy.

I had my own first emotional experience with a young man who, as a social worker, I took a special interest in. After several evaluations and diagnoses nothing added up. Some said depression, others said ADHD; then it became Oppositional Defiant Disorder....After nearly everything was exhausted a Drug Rehab counselor asked him to draw a circle (fine motor skills) and pulled me aside and said he was FAE; It was an aha moment....I realized that many of the clients I had been beating my head against the wall over because nothing helped exhibited many FASD signs...It's not just the small kids with cleft lip....

It was interesting hearing Michael Dorris' discussion of the Indian Community and the overwhelming pull of alcohol. I worked at an American Indian Center and had parents and children who regularly drank together; something that I could not fathom and which I was told was "an Indian thing." Dorris gives more in depth historical perspective as well as holding people accountable for their individual actions. As a liberal (and anthropologist) I could relate to his hesitance to blame the moms...but it was good to see a mirror held up to myself; the problem exists and we must take personal responsibility and do everything to stop it. I know these kids and it is a tragic life. Read this book!

Michael Dorris, a single 26 year old professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth, decided he wanted to adopt a child by himself, he didn't really know what he was getting himself into in The Broken Cord by Michael Dorris, a book that should be highly recommended to any reader.
Through the long hard process of adoption, he finally became a father to a young boy named Adam. Michael was told that Adam had some severe developmental problems due to his FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) and the abuse and neglect from his biological mother. Michael was aware of these developmental problems; however he seemed to ignore them, or at least think that they would be easily overcome and he would mature like a normal child. However after adopting two more children later, Sava and Madeline, he realized that they developed much faster, and were quickly at the same level as Adam. In the beginning of the book, Michael was in denial. He blamed Adam's developmental issues on unfair tests, a sluggish start, and useless assessments. At one point, he wrote, "I periodically concluded that Adam's teachers must be incompetent, badly trained, or lazy when they failed to stimulate his performance in the classroom."(pg 65) Michael learned about determination and unconditional love through his life. It took a lot of work from him, teachers, and other people in the community to help Adam develop slowly.
There are many humorous stories, such as the train birthday cake that Michael made for Adam's daycare, which he made using some extremely bold dyes for the icing, and got a call from the owner of the daycare who was very concerned. "`It's when they put the kids to bed,' she said. `When they took them to the potty. They noticed before they flushed! The water in the toilet bowl was green! Or bright blue! Electric yellow! Orange!'" (page 69) Like he mentioned in one part of the book, it is almost necessary when dealing with FAS to have a sense of humor about it.
This book is very well written, and contains a lot of history and facts about the Native American culture, as well as about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and its strain and effects on development. There were also many examples of good literature. "My cabin perched on a bank above the beach, high enough so that I seemed entirely surrounded by improbable light, awhirl in the energy of star and sea." (page 3) This passage brings about a taste of the immense imagery and high-quality descriptions found in The Broken Cord.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in another culture, and in learning about FAS. Personally, I didn't know what Fetal Alcohol Syndrome really entailed until I read The Broken Cord. It's full of laughter, love, devotion, and tragedy, a little something for everyone.

Although the author had lots of great information on his FAS child his history and experience as an anthropologist makes the reading difficult. He sometimes spends more time describing the wind or the surroundings than he does talking about his son's issues. Two other books I read on the same subject were riveting and sad in their own way. Michael Dorris' detours made me not want to read the book because paragraphs would go by describing the grass swaying in the wind rather than how he was coping or dealing with his son's terrible affliction. I wish the movie was available for viewing because in this case the summarized cinematic version might be better.

I consider this one of the most important books I've ever read (and like you, I've read A LOT of books). It's one of the few books you pick up in a lifetime that change how you see the world. Along with "Plagues and Peoples" and "Guns, Germs and Steel," it's in my permanent Top Three for non-fiction books.

No one asks to be born with FAS or other mental disabilities. They don't ask to be harmed in utero, or neglected afterward, either by their parents or by society. Yet they must somehow cope in life, and so must those around them.

That we live in the richest country in the world, yet are too selfish to ensure adequate pre- and post-natal care for every child is horrifying, and we all pay the price in the long run.