AIDAN'S WAY: The Story of a Boy's Life and a Father's Journey

An Asian studies professor at Williams College, Crane mines his academic field to tell the story of his profoundly disabled son's life, unpacking a grab-bag of Asian philosophy and its relationship to his son's humanity and worth. Despite some excessively formal passages and, alternately, overly emotional, cliché-laden writing, this book will ring true for parents dealing with similar situations. Crane's thesis that "disabled people are not marginal to the human experience; they are central to it, for without them there could be no definition of ability," while not novel, is a stimulating addition to the public debate over the rights of the disabled. Crane's son, Aidan, has suffered from seizures since he was 10 days old, and at age seven he "still could not walk or talk or see. His abilities were closer to those of a three-month-old infant." The author recounts the many years of doctor visits and the frustrations and triumphs he and his wife experience as they attempt to give their child meaningful care, and philosophical discussions of Tao Te Ching and the Book of Changes, as well as other texts, relieve the repetitive litany of seizure episodes and the tedious minute-by-minute descriptions of Aidan's medical care. Parents of the disabled will find much to identify with in this upbeat and hopeful memoir. Agent, Dorian Karchmar. (Nov.)