'Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity' by Andrew Solomon is a deep exploration of identity and childhood, focusing on the relationships between parents and children who are different from their families in various ways. The book delves into the concept of horizontal identity, where children have characteristics that are distinct from their parents, and covers a wide range of topics including deafness, disabilities, autism, criminality, and transgender issues. Through poignant stories and insightful interviews, Solomon examines how families cope with these differences and the challenges they face in understanding and accepting their children.
The writing style of 'Far from the Tree' is described as brilliant and compassionate, with Solomon weaving together personal narratives, research, and social theories to offer a nuanced perspective on parenting and identity formation. The book is praised for its thought-provoking content, extensive research, and the author's ability to present complex topics in a compelling and accessible manner, leaving readers with a greater understanding of diversity, acceptance, and the complexities of family relationships.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include discussions of disabilities, mental illness, parental rejection, and sensitive subjects like rape and crime.
From The Publisher:
Solomon's startling proposition in Far from the Tree is that being exceptional is at the core of the human condition-that difference is what unites us. He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, or multiple severe disabilities; with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating, the experience of difference within families is universal, and Solomon documents triumphs of love over prejudice in every chapter.
All parenting turns on a crucial question: to what extent should parents accept their children for who they are, and to what extent they should help them become their best selves. Drawing on ten years of research and interviews with more than three hundred families, Solomon mines the eloquence of ordinary people facing extreme challenges.
Elegantly reported by a spectacularly original and compassionate thinker, Far from the Tree explores how people who love each other must struggle to accept each other-a theme in every family's life.
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About the Author:
Andrew Solomon is a professor of psychology at Columbia University, president of PEN American Center, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, NPR, and The New York Times Magazine. A lecturer and activist, he is the author of Far and Away: Essays from the Brink of Change: Seven Continents, Twenty-Five Years; the National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, which has won thirty additional national awards; and The Noonday Demon; An Atlas of Depression, which won the 2001 National Book Award, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and has been published in twenty-four languages. He has also written a novel, A Stone Boat, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award and The Irony Tower: Soviet Artists in a Time of Glasnost. His TED talks have been viewed over ten million times. He lives in New York and London and is a dual national. For more information, visit the author's website at AndrewSolomon.com.
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