Customer Reviews

Keeping Keller

5 star:		(7)
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This wonderfully written novel is sure to take you in. I read it from cover to cover in a matter of 24 hours, I literally could not put it down! I thought the author was brilliant in her descriptions and the book flowed so smoothly that it was as if I was there witnessing it all with my own eyes. It opened for me, a window into a world I know almost nothing about, and as result of it, I hope to be more sensitive, and more compassionate in the future to people that deal with mental or physical disabilities.

Thank you for writing such an inspiring story, it has been a long time since I have been touched so deeply by a book.

Tracy Winegar has hit a home run with her first novel. Keeping Keller is a poignant tale that makes the reader think twice about children and relationships. I loved it and highly recommend it.

This is a deeply moving and very beautiful story.

Set in Indiana in 1955, Beverly and Warren are at a loss as how to raise their 5-year-old son, Keller who has autism. Marginally verbal, the boy is rigid about routines and has difficulty interacting. He also requires a lot of supervision.

Beverly luckily has a small support system in the form of a very kind malt shop owner and a neighbor who discloses her own secret anguish. Warren is a kind and loving husband and father who spurns his sexually predatory secretary's inappropriate advances and who turns a deaf ear to his father's sexist comments. His family and his 1953 Dodge Coronet are his pride and, to him, his best accomplishments.

Parts of this book are funny. Keller's special interest in elephants leads to an embarrassing episode in a grocery store where his drive to find toy elephants proves costly. He also demonstrates destructive behavior while visiting one of Beverly's friends.

Things come to a head in early 1956. Keller's behavior spirals out of control with some devastating consequences. Warren is forced to consider making a desperate, drastic decision.

A beautiful, deeply moving story set during an era when the word "autism" had only been coined little more than a decade earlier (1943), the delightful characters and rich descriptions as well as the history lessons contained throughout and within the story all work to make this a masterpiece.

This book was wonderful. I felt like I was living in Keller's family. This book was very well researched and written. I couldn't put it down until it was finished.

I was sent this simple, but most heartwarming first novel by my new friend Tracy by another good friend at CFI to read and review a few weeks ago and I just finished it Sunday after Church. I started reading it while waiting for our 22 year old son going through intake at our local Lourdes PACT Team Counseling Service, as he has been suffering with mental illness since he was 15. This sensitve and cheerful story shows a brighter side of families dealing with Autism, but in the mid 50's when society shunned people afflicted with mental and physical disorders. Since I worked with people with these handicaps in a hospital environment, I came to understand and love these people. Having people of any age locked up in institutions, was inhumane, as I witnessed former patients placed in nursing homes that had been institutionalized, dam aged from shock therapy, etc, it hurt me. Our former bishop's second oldest son has three Autistic children and two are being mainstreamed this fall, which I think is super!!! And, this is my second novel on autism by an LDS author. The other book is Faraway Child by Amy Maida Wadsworth. I recommend this wonderfully, eye-opening novel to everyone.

I loved this novel. The intimate view you get when you look into this family's life is bittersweet. I gained a new respect for families who have disabled children. The stance society took on these children is so harsh and sad. I also loved how real the characters were.

What a heartwarming story that gives people who have children with handicaps and those who incounter children with handicaps in public a new perspective! The book was so well written I couldn't put it down until I was finished!