Book reviews: The Boy in the Moon

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 52, No. 6, July August 2010, Page 294 News
By: Cynthia Verchere, MD

By Ian Brown. Random House Canada, 2010. ISBN 9780679310099. Paperback, 304 pages. $21.00.

Book cover for The in the Moon

A Globe and Mail journalist’s second child has an extremely rare and severe congenital developmental disorder about which little is known and even less can be predicted. The enormous physical and emotional burden of care of his child consumes his family’s day-to-day life and direction, and creates uncertainty about his son’s future beyond the family’s ability to help him and to advocate for his value. 

This book was written partly in documentation of what can only be des­cribed as a life-changing story for one family, but also a very deep and movingly real examination of how our society cares for and values dependent individuals in general. 

Historical atrocities, institutionalization, poverty, mortality, and modern issues of funding, priorities, and systemic ignorance of the lifelong needs of some members of society are introduced as the author discovers them. 

The reader is slowly educated about different life-care philosophies, and there is a hopeful tone, especially near the end, when some radical concepts of cohabitation and acceptance of dependency are experienced by the author. 

I highly recommend this book for anyone, but especially those of us involved with dependent patients or family members. It is not by any means a light read, but it offers a view of life and its possibilities from a perspective we might otherwise never know to appreciate. 
—CV

Cynthia Verchere, MD. Book reviews: The Boy in the Moon. BCMJ, Vol. 52, No. 6, July, August, 2010, Page(s) 294 - News.


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