I Am in Here: The Journey of a Child with Autism who Cannot Speak but Finds Her Voice by Elizabeth M Bonker and Virginia G Breen

I Am in Here: The Journey of a Child with Autism Who Cannot Speak but Finds Her Voice
by Elizabeth M Bonker and Virginia G Breen

Rating: ** (2 stars)
Book Length: 253 pages
Genre: Autism, Psychology, Memoir, Poetry

The title and authorship of this book would lead the reader to think that it is written by, and about, an adolescent with autism. The reality is that this book is a melodramatic memoir which includes a main topic of having a daughter with autism. It also includes many trips down memory lanes by the main author of the book Virginia (Elizabeth's mother). Many of these ventures are quite interesting. She graduated from Harvard, seems to travel extensively, and can pick up and fly across the country for healing prayers. On a trip to Tibet she happened to meet someone who worked for PBS creating documentaries. This is not a typical middle or lower class family. None of this takes away from the book in itself.

My main issue with the book is that it is marketed as being written from the perspective of Elizabeth - a nonverbal adolescent with autism. In reality Elizabeth's poems are extensively included followed by small segments of explanation of the poetry. The rest is her mother's story. Her mother is a melodramatic mess. I would love to read the follow up, actually written by Elizabeth, when she is a few years older. She seems like a remarkable young women.

There should be several warnings before you decided to pick up this novel. The mother comes from a business profession, and this is evident in the writing. She uses analogies from business to attempt some sort of structure of her life in an attempt to make blanket statements. This would be useful if this were a self help book rather then a memoir, and if she had the endorsement, or even more universal experience, to back these ideas up.

The book has a mystical Christian theme to it - the author even described herself as such. Throughout the book you will find a lot of references to God and scriptures. She then seems to mix this around by talking about Tibet a bit.

There are a lot of references to controversial biomedical procedures. If you agree with this approach to autism treatment then I think you will be frustrated by the way she seems to vaguely mention most of them and not really reference their progress or effect, if any. She only partly does this with one treatment - and the response was more an example of an emotion journey on the part of the mother. If you do not agree with this approach then you may be a bit outraged by the fact that this mother seems willing to try anything.

It seems to me that so much emphases is put on the negative aspects. Elizabeth cannot speak - but she can communicate - and in this day and age there are great compact devices that can be used to give her a voice. Hence, one reason why the iPad is so popular with autistic families. I also wish that more attention was given to the journey of the family as a whole. I would have loved to hear about Elizabeth's brother who is also diagnosed with autism. It is not even until the middle of the book that we are told there is an older sister. The dad is given a brief mention - which makes no sense if he is in fact home with them and as such their primary caregiver.

I would have a lot less criticism if the book was marketed as a mother's perspective, although even then I think that would have only earned it an extra 1/2 star.

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