The author, whose adult daughter is dyslexic, found most books on learning disabilities to be dry and clinical. It consists of 143 candid interviews with dyslexic students, their parents and siblings from around this country and the United Kingdom. Kurnoff says she aims to offer readers a kind of electronic support system by sharing experiences and strategies for counteracting a condition that affects 10 percent of the population. Families who worry about a dyslexic child's future prospects will find the stories of college students particularly revealing. Dyslexia doesn't spell doom.
Dark feelings encourage sensitivity.
Goodman homes in on those dark interiors to depict diverse individuals in unsettling, and often haunting, situations. A middle-aged man starving himself to death fantasizes about an emaciated stranger. An exhausted new mother wanders into a graveyard and dreams of burying herself. A tyrannical old woman torments her grandson and feels no remorse. Goodman's portrayals evoke the isolation and loneliness of modern society.