Review by Aud0119 -- The Silence of Ray by Karen Fletcher
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Aud0119
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- Latest Review: The Silence of Ray by Karen Fletcher
Review by Aud0119 -- The Silence of Ray by Karen Fletcher
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Silence of Ray" by Karen Fletcher.]
The Silence of Ray by Karen Yvette Renee Taylor-Fletcher is a story written by a mother about her experiences raising a son, Ray, diagnosed with autism at a young age. In this book, Taylor-Fletcher details the many hurdles that she had to overcome while trying to raise her autistic son and two other children. Her family was already struggling with poverty but the appearance of autistic behaviors in Ray presented a whole new host of challenges, including a lack of education and resources for Taylor-Fletcher on how to take care of Ray, Ray refusing to eat and drink, Ray being repeatedly denied benefits and assistance, and Ray often running away, resulting in many searches by Taylor-Fletcher, her other children, their neighbors, and the police. The book also includes lighthearted moments as Taylor-Fletcher details the ups and downs of raising Ray, including Ray once taking off his swimming trunks in the pool and then walking around the pool naked while Taylor-Fletcher frantically tried to convince him to get dressed again. The struggles and humor aside, a majority of the book was filled with Taylor-Fletcher talking about how much she loved Ray and how proud she was of him. She often reflected on the lessons she learned from him.
I really liked the anecdotes that Taylor-Fletcher included about raising Ray. Ray was a talented young man and was obviously adored not only by his family but by his community as well. Although the book’s ending was not a surprise to me since Taylor-Fletcher hinted at the ending, that did not make reading it any less emotional. Taylor-Fletcher conveyed her emotions well in her writing.
I found the tone of this book to be off-putting at first. It is very casual, and it feels more like Taylor-Fletcher wrote the whole book as a stream of consciousness journal of her experiences with Ray, rather than restructuring the book after she had her ideas written down. I did not like the structure of the book and I found it to be very confusing. Taylor-Fletcher jumped around frequently in her timeline, often without letting the reader know how far forward or backward she was jumping. This made the story difficult to follow because I often didn’t know how old Ray was or where they were living at certain times. The book seemed to be structured sometimes by theme and sometimes chronologically, which meant that Taylor-Fletcher often repeated herself and contradicted herself. For example, she would talk about how her family always felt very welcomed at church, then describe how difficult it was to take Ray to church and how embarrassed her family was by his screaming and kicking in church, then resume talking about how church was always a positive place for her family. It is possible that Ray was difficult to bring to church and then he changed his behavior as he grew older, or he was difficult in church sometimes, but the lack of a clear timeline or note of Ray’s progress in the book makes some anecdotes feel contradictory. Reading this book felt like I was trying to piece together the timeline myself and it was difficult and frustrating at times. Another example of the contradictions was in the title of the book. The book is called The Silence of Ray, and Taylor-Fletcher occasionally references Ray being nonverbal, but she also makes references to Ray talking sometimes as well. Very little of the story is focused on Ray speaking or being nonverbal and I would have liked to read more about that, since Taylor-Fletcher felt it was important enough to include it in the title of the book.
This book could benefit from professional editing, as there were many grammar mistakes throughout the book and sometimes the wrong word was used. Taylor-Fletcher included facts and statistics about autism at the end of some chapters, but not others. I appreciated the facts but wished they had been more consistent, because they weren’t in every chapter and they only sometimes related well to the chapter that they were in.
For these reasons, I give this book 2 out of 4 stars. I enjoyed the story and emotional aspects of the book, but I wish that it had been structured differently so it had been easier to read and to follow Ray’s progression. I think that people who like memoirs and books about families and disabilities will enjoy this book.
******
The Silence of Ray
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The Silence of Ray by Karen Yvette Renee Taylor-Fletcher is a story written by a mother about her experiences raising a son, Ray, diagnosed with autism at a young age. In this book, Taylor-Fletcher details the many hurdles that she had to overcome while trying to raise her autistic son and two other children. Her family was already struggling with poverty but the appearance of autistic behaviors in Ray presented a whole new host of challenges, including a lack of education and resources for Taylor-Fletcher on how to take care of Ray, Ray refusing to eat and drink, Ray being repeatedly denied benefits and assistance, and Ray often running away, resulting in many searches by Taylor-Fletcher, her other children, their neighbors, and the police. The book also includes lighthearted moments as Taylor-Fletcher details the ups and downs of raising Ray, including Ray once taking off his swimming trunks in the pool and then walking around the pool naked while Taylor-Fletcher frantically tried to convince him to get dressed again. The struggles and humor aside, a majority of the book was filled with Taylor-Fletcher talking about how much she loved Ray and how proud she was of him. She often reflected on the lessons she learned from him.
I really liked the anecdotes that Taylor-Fletcher included about raising Ray. Ray was a talented young man and was obviously adored not only by his family but by his community as well. Although the book’s ending was not a surprise to me since Taylor-Fletcher hinted at the ending, that did not make reading it any less emotional. Taylor-Fletcher conveyed her emotions well in her writing.
I found the tone of this book to be off-putting at first. It is very casual, and it feels more like Taylor-Fletcher wrote the whole book as a stream of consciousness journal of her experiences with Ray, rather than restructuring the book after she had her ideas written down. I did not like the structure of the book and I found it to be very confusing. Taylor-Fletcher jumped around frequently in her timeline, often without letting the reader know how far forward or backward she was jumping. This made the story difficult to follow because I often didn’t know how old Ray was or where they were living at certain times. The book seemed to be structured sometimes by theme and sometimes chronologically, which meant that Taylor-Fletcher often repeated herself and contradicted herself. For example, she would talk about how her family always felt very welcomed at church, then describe how difficult it was to take Ray to church and how embarrassed her family was by his screaming and kicking in church, then resume talking about how church was always a positive place for her family. It is possible that Ray was difficult to bring to church and then he changed his behavior as he grew older, or he was difficult in church sometimes, but the lack of a clear timeline or note of Ray’s progress in the book makes some anecdotes feel contradictory. Reading this book felt like I was trying to piece together the timeline myself and it was difficult and frustrating at times. Another example of the contradictions was in the title of the book. The book is called The Silence of Ray, and Taylor-Fletcher occasionally references Ray being nonverbal, but she also makes references to Ray talking sometimes as well. Very little of the story is focused on Ray speaking or being nonverbal and I would have liked to read more about that, since Taylor-Fletcher felt it was important enough to include it in the title of the book.
This book could benefit from professional editing, as there were many grammar mistakes throughout the book and sometimes the wrong word was used. Taylor-Fletcher included facts and statistics about autism at the end of some chapters, but not others. I appreciated the facts but wished they had been more consistent, because they weren’t in every chapter and they only sometimes related well to the chapter that they were in.
For these reasons, I give this book 2 out of 4 stars. I enjoyed the story and emotional aspects of the book, but I wish that it had been structured differently so it had been easier to read and to follow Ray’s progression. I think that people who like memoirs and books about families and disabilities will enjoy this book.
******
The Silence of Ray
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The Silence of Ray by Karen Fletcher
