Mermaid: A Memoir of Resilience

This rather circuitous memoir by Cronin, now a clinical psychologist in L.A., tells of growing up with a congenital disability that left her without legs from the knee down. The product of a large, deeply Catholic Cincinnati family, Cronin “squiddled” along the floor with ample self-sufficiency as a child until she began to recognize how she was different from other people, especially the members of her own athletic, sometimes cruel, family. Fitted with artificial limbs to attend kindergarten, Cronin mostly succeeded in being accepted as a “normal” kid, except for the gracelessness of others, such as her fifth-grade religion instructor, Sister Luke, who announced to the class that the reason for Cronin’s disability was that her mother had taken “a pill” during pregnancy, though Cronin was never able to determine if thalidomide was involved. Her mother, teetering into mental illness after her 11th child, always insisted that Cronin did not have legs “because baby Jesus chose to carry the cross.” Cronin describes the tortures of dating and young adulthood, but evades the big questions regarding her upbringing. (Jan.)