Customer Reviews

In the Little World: A True Story of Dwarfs, Love, and Trouble

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Journalist John H. Richardson attended a Little People of America convention looking for a story he could turn into a book. But the perfect story did not emerge immediately and so Richardson, cynical journalist that he seems to be, apparently decided to force a story. What emerges is more a voyeuristic look into the methods and musings of a journalist than the intimate look at "dwarfs" that Richardson may have intended.

Early in the book, the author muses over how he should approach his story. He is critical of those who write "little people with big hearts" stories and sets out to do something different. He succeeds. This book comes off as little people through the eyes of a little heart.

Richardson chronicles his involvement with a brassy female dwarf ; the blossoming love of a dwarf couple ; and a crippled teen female dwarf who suffers through multiple surgeries with her maladjusted mother. The author takes the subjects on his own terms, works his way into their lives, and gains their trust so that he can expose their worst personality traits with diminished attention to any warmth that they might possess.

The author writes very well as may be expected from one who writes for a living. His coverage of the world of little people is fairly complete with significant discussions on the medical treatment of dwarfism through surgery and therapy. He delves too deeply into the philosophical view of dwarfism through the ages. And he delves deeply into the relationships between little people, their families, friends and others who surround them.

He graphically chronicles the stress that dwarfism can place on a family and even more graphically portrays the havoc that can occur when one turns outside one's family for moral support.

Most of all, however, Ricahrdson depicts the way in which a journalist can invite himself into another person's life to spin a story in his own direction. Although Richardson documents the hurt expressed by some of those who read his blunt newspaper coverage of the Little People of America convention, he sheds any personal remorse and continues his calloused views to the end of this book. I can only hope that those same people hurt by Richardson's newspaper work will save themselves the pain of reading this book.

Here's a good criteria for judging this book. Substitute the word "dwarf" or "little person" with African American, Jew, Latino, etc., and you will find this book offensive. The author never gets past the physical differences from himself, and we never get a true picture of the humanity of his subjects. I also happen to know some of the subjects of his book, and he completely distorts their stories, and actual events, for the sake of a good read. Consider it a work of fiction.

What could have been simply a voyeuristic look into an underreported world becomes something much greater in the hands of John Richardson. Unlike many reporters, Richardson has the philospohical chops to provide real meaning to what he witnesses, and to bring out truths that aren't obvious to the naked eye. Throughout the book, Richardson surprises by often focusing his energy on the fears and hidden motivations of "normal" people -- the parents, the siblings, the doctors, the gawkers.

If anyone should feel discomfited by the book, it's not the dwarves, it's the tall people -- myself included -- who have so much difficulty dealing with what the "little people" represent.

John Richardson allegedly went to Atlanta to write about the yearly national conference for Little People of America. What he actually ended up doing was putting himself into the story very much like Charlie Kaufman did in the film "Adaptation." It didn't work for that film and it certainly doesn't work for this book.

So many reviews praise Richardson for sharing this hidden world with the general public. Richardson does not shed light on an unknown world. He reports on a world full of people that he, like many others, fail to see as human beings. He exposes his prejudice towards people with dwarfism throughout, but the most glaring example is at the end. After following Jocelyn and her family for over 2 years he says good-bye and writes that he "bends down to kiss her bulging forehead." Two years and the only thing he still sees are the differences? With reporting such as this he never is able to convey anything to his readers besides his constant "look at the freaks" mentality that the book opens with. Richardson's glee at his entry into dwarf-world simply reads as the kid who finally finds someone the bullies dislike even more than they dislike him and uses his new found knowledge to keep it that way.

Perhaps it's more important for Richardson to blow away the stereotype of "little bodies/big hearts" and let the world know he's the Goliath that slew David. Perhaps his "us vs them" mentality makes him feel superior. Perhaps he has never come to grips that the beauty that he is so obsessed with has eluded him. Whatever his reasons for writing this book, gaining insight on a community he is not a member of is not one of them. There are better fiction books on dwarfism than this supposedly true story.

Once on OPRAH I'd heard a guest state that if we white people say we are not prejudiced, then we ARE and we are in denial. I was worried. Did she mean me? Lately I've been reading a lot about dwarfism, fiction and nonfiction. (The LPA/Amazon booklist has been a great resource). Richardson's book was the one that forced me to rethink my feelings and opinions about the little world.

I am an average sized woman with a baby niece with achondroplasia. For years, even before she was born, I had been fascinated by dwarfism so I welcomed her with a soaring heart. I felt special, chosen, to be family to this little person. I saw IN THE LITTLE WORLD as another book that could add to my awareness and it did, but not as I'd expected. The words are sometimes brutally honest, sometimes irritating, but always moving and informative.

Just as many authors have done with fictional accounts, average sized people can use dwarfs' sometimes traumatic experiences as metaphors to their own personal anguish. John Richarson bares his soul striving to see how patronizing it is to use dwarfs' struggles in this tall world for our own benefit; "They're different, and they're brave", we say, "...just like me!" This is still stereotyping and discriminatory thinking, not to mention egoism!

Well, Richardson's reporting caught me in the act, so to speak. Dwarfs are people. Why should they be arbitrarily elevated onto a pedestal or be dropped into the depths of pity for simply living their lives? Attitude is the disability! Here is a strong voice and a new perspective from the average sized world saying: Stop the brazen condescension! Thank you to all the little people who spoke so honestly through this account and to John Richardson for taking risks telling an often difficult story.

I do find it fascinating that Mr. Richardson spends much of this book describing his own cognitive struggle with the concept of dwarfism - the historical information he shares about cosmetic beauty, the activism by individuals with disabilities, etc., is pretty interesting. But Mr. Richardson is really approaching this with half a loaf here - for example, one does not have to be an investigative reporter or a therapist to realize that the sum of his relationship with Andrea is that she has an incredible crush on him. Yet while he acknowledges his confusion about this "friendship" he is seemingly clueless about this issue - even when his wife points out that Andrea's demand for him to go into "therapy" with her is strange, he doesn't have an insightful moment of realizing what is going on here. His detailed description of the situation with Jocelyn and her family is heart breaking, and echoes other similarly written accounts of how a child's disability and dependencies takes it toll on marriages and families. But by the end, we really are less empathic for the parties involved, and more stunned by the blinders they all have on....
By focussing on some of the dysfunction here, though, I think he does a disservice to individuals living with dwarfism. We are left looking at the problems, the dysfunction, rather than the function. There is no question that this is well written, and Mr. Richardson puts himself front and center in the book - examining his own values as if they were a microcosm of all of us "talls". But by limiting his "stories", I think he does these folks a disservice. For example, why not tell the story of a dwarf and family who HAS decided to have limb lengthening surgery - to look at the other side of the coin? I'm not saying that the book must be comprehensive, but it's such an interesting subject - I feel shortchanged...

I am a person of normal stature, however, I am also only 5ft tall. :) Aside from height, there are many ways in which any reader would be able to relate to the author as well as his subjects. Richardson's research about the history and word origin of dwarfs & little people make the book even more enjoyable, focusing only on the eyebrow-raising tidbits of information while foregoing the usual boring background stuff. What starts off as a thorough account of his participation in the Little People of America convention becomes a book of how intertwined his life became to learn about what it means to be different. His honesty and willingness to share the behind-the-scenes conversations and fights made for a very raw, intriguing, and dramatic story.

I could not put this book down. I read it from cover to cover and went back continuously to re-read certain parts. This book is so truthful and so stirring in its very truthfulness. I have never known a dwarf, but have come to believe that they need a greater strength just to get through each day than the rest of us "normal-sized" people. So many of them have such pain to deal with -- I can't imagine. And yet, they are just people like the rest of us. A truly amazing work. Unforgettable.

I took this book out of the library at my college, thinking that, at best, it'd be a "big person goes to visit the world of Little People" kind of thing. Objective. Curious.

It was anything but. I was fascinated by how the author begins by being repulsed by and fascinated with the people he meets, and then begins to think of them as real people, sharing in their triumphs and hurts - while still realizing that there is, and will always be, a barrier there that he cannot cross, and doesn't want to.

It is a brutally honest book in all its parts, and I consider it to be one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.

Mr. Richardson has a unique perspective; like being an alien dropped into an LPA convention. Frankly, it's the LP's (little people) who usually feel the way Mr. Richardson does, which is quite an interesting thought flipped over. It's not how much different dwarves are to the world, it's how they perceive themselves and when all is said, they are human after all with needs the same as everyone else.

Thank you's go to this book and Mr. Richardson for giving the "talls" something to chew about including a portrayal of one "obsessed but saintly" orthopaedic surgeon Steven Kopits who has since retired and how this doctor has sacrificed his career and his family to make LP's more functional. This book and Dr. Kopits have both succeeded in a very "big" way.