Dirt: a story about gardening, mothering, and other messy business [Paperback]

Susan Senator (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2011

Emmy is a typical suburban mother--at least on the outside. On the inside she's a mess. She's trying to raise her three sons alone, and that is proving to be a discouraging struggle. Her oldest, Nick, is profoundly autistic and increasingly frustrated with the world around him. Henry, her normally dependable middle child seems to be drifting away from her into morose adolescence. And then there's Dan, her eight-year-old who seems perpetually angry at everyone in the family. Emmy's estranged husband Eric is no help at all, just a weekend dad who pops in when he's not wanted and takes the boys out for fast food or visits to the Science Museum. Emmy's haven from it all is her garden, and her dream is to start a landscape design business. But lack of time and energy keep her stuck selling real estate--it is all Emmy can do just to keep her life under control. When a flirtation, a brush with the law and a near tragedy occur within a few weeks of each other, Emmy is certain that she has failed adulthood completely. Dirt presents a portrait of complicated relationships and the ways that people find refuge--and each other.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Susan Senator lives in Massachusetts with her husband and whichever of her three sons are around at the moment. Her work can be found in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and Family Fun Magazine. When she is not writing or mothering, she is gardening.

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (October 17, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1466459158
• ISBN-13: 978-1466459151
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 5.2 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,279,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Susan Senator is mother of three sons, the oldest of whom has fairly severe autism. Senator is the author of one novel "Dirt: A Story About Gardening, Mothering, and Other Messy Business," and two autism parenting books, "Making Peace With Autism: One Family's Story of Struggle, Discovery, and Unexpected Gifts," and "The Autism Mom's Survival Guide: Creating a Happy and Balanced Life While Raising a Child With Autism." She began her writing career in 1984, as an escape, while working on her Master's Thesis at the University of Pennsylvania. She ultimately wrote four novels, and in 1997 published her first autism parenting article in Exceptional Parent Magazine. This led to many, many articles on various aspects of autism, parenting, and family life in places like The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post, all of which, along with her blog, can be found at susansenator.com. Senator has appeared on the Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, and NPR's Weekend America. She was also a guest at a dinner at the White House in honor of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Special Olympics, where she met the President. Senator's first book, "Making Peace With Autism," was given the Exceptional Parent Magazine Award of Distinction. Senator's philosophy is that it is certainly possible to have a happy family life even given the difficult context of autism -- it's just not what you might have expected.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Seriously good October 25, 2011

By Meredith

Format:Kindle Edition

I have read Susan Senator's books on the subject of autism, having an autistic son myself, I have gained a lot from reading them. This book though....wow! I LOVED it. It swept me along from start to finish. I loved the characters, finding them very believable, which I wonder if in such a novel featuring autism, is possible by anyone who hasn't lived this life, with all its joys and desperation.
I liked how there were recognisable autism traits throughout the family, not just in the diagnosed. because aint that the truth.

Love the garden blossoming thoughout the book.

Will be recommending and rereading.
Meredith

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully done, fully believable portrait of a family dealing with special needs October 23, 2011

By K. Wombles

Format:Kindle Edition

When Susan Senator asked her facebook friends if any would be interested in reading her new novel, I jumped at the chance. She had me with the title. I love gardening, and it has been my solace, my comfort, my breathing room over the last two decades of parents children with special needs.

It's Susan's first novel, and one she's worked on for several years. She gets it all right. The characters breathe, they are all likable, believable people struggling to do the best they can under enormous pressures.

It's an interior novel with snippets of action, but its power lies in the opportunity to spend time in the minds of the characters as they try to make sense of themselves and their relationship with the others in the family. Gardening frames the narrative beautifully, and makes the movement in the novel flow and have external meaning.

Although the novel ends with no clear resolution, it ends on an up-note, a sense that Emmy and Eric, the parents, have moved through the darkness, the winter of their discontent, and will be able to work together with more compassion for each other and for their children, to do what's best for each child in the family.

Their lives have revolved around Nick, their autistic son, to the detriment of their marriage, their other two sons, and themselves, and perhaps to Nick's detriment, as well. They are disconnected and their reactions to each other in moments of stress are entirely believable. They find support in Tom, the just-right speech therapist who helps the family to reach a moment of resolution to reach out to each other, to seek help, to weather the storms that inevitably face them.

I devoured this book this weekend, reading it as a word document, and found myself lost in it, scrolling through it as if I were sprinting for the finish line, eager to see what the next page would bring.

It's a realistic novel; things don't magically get better, problems don't disappear, but what does crystallize is the parents' intention to see each family member as the unique individual he is, and to honor that individuality and the specific needs and issues rather than focusing on how those individuals revolve around Nick and his needs.

It's an excellent novel, one of the better books I've read that incorporate autism into its narrative and one I can wholeheartedly recommend.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read... November 29, 2011

By jkmccaff

Format:Paperback

As the mother of two children with autism I generally try to fill my "leisure time" with reading that does not pertain to the spectrum, but when I heard that Susan Senator had made the leap from non-fiction to fiction, I knew I had to break tradition. I am so glad I did. From the very first page she drew me in with her evocative imagery, revealing what transpires in the mind of the oldest and also autistic son in this compelling fictional family. She continued to entice me further by creating characters who are multi-dimensional, likeable, and experiencing real issues that many families with an autistic child frequently face. I couldn't wait to see what happened at the conclusion, and was pleasantly surprised when I got there. In the end, this wasn't really a book about autism per se. It was really about relationships and family, one with which I could completely relate. By creating compelling characters and a brisk plot, and combining these with her always elegant prose, Susan Senator's makes "Dirt" a must-read.