Like all mothers, Emily Rapp had ambitious
plans for her first and only child, Ronan. He would be smart, loyal,
physically fearless, and level-headed, but fun. He would be good at
crossword puzzles like his father. He would be an avid skier like his
mother. Rapp would speak to him in foreign languages and give him the
best education.
But all of these plans changed when Ronan was diagnosed at nine months old with Tay-Sachs disease, a rare and always-fatal degenerative disorder. Ronan was not expected to live beyond the age of three; he would be permanently stalled at a developmental level of six months. Rapp and her husband were forced to re-evaluate everything they thought they knew about parenting. They would have to learn to live with their child in the moment; to find happiness in the midst of sorrow; to parent without a future.
The Still Point of the Turning World is the story of a mother’s journey through grief and beyond it. Rapp’s response to her son’s diagnosis was a belief that she needed to “make my world big”—to make sense of her family’s situation through art, literature, philosophy, theology and myth. Drawing on a broad range of thinkers and writers, from C.S. Lewis to Sylvia Plath, Hegel to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Rapp learns what wisdom there is to be gained from parenting a terminally ill child. In luminous, exquisitely moving prose she re-examines our most fundamental assumptions about what it means to be a good parent, to be a success, and to live a meaningful life.
Lisa says:
It is full of raw emotion, courage, poetry,
beauty; it's heartbreaking, and the way she weaves in other literature, I
can't do it justice. But I can tell you I highly recommend it to everyone and
it will be high on my recommends list. It was so amazing, I re-read most of it"
But all of these plans changed when Ronan was diagnosed at nine months old with Tay-Sachs disease, a rare and always-fatal degenerative disorder. Ronan was not expected to live beyond the age of three; he would be permanently stalled at a developmental level of six months. Rapp and her husband were forced to re-evaluate everything they thought they knew about parenting. They would have to learn to live with their child in the moment; to find happiness in the midst of sorrow; to parent without a future.
The Still Point of the Turning World is the story of a mother’s journey through grief and beyond it. Rapp’s response to her son’s diagnosis was a belief that she needed to “make my world big”—to make sense of her family’s situation through art, literature, philosophy, theology and myth. Drawing on a broad range of thinkers and writers, from C.S. Lewis to Sylvia Plath, Hegel to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Rapp learns what wisdom there is to be gained from parenting a terminally ill child. In luminous, exquisitely moving prose she re-examines our most fundamental assumptions about what it means to be a good parent, to be a success, and to live a meaningful life.
"This weekend
I finished an exquisite memoir. The
Still Point of the Turning World: A Mother's Story by Emily Rapp. I took my time reading this
because she did such a beautiful job of writing the story of her life with son
Ronan who was born with Tay Sachs.
Accclaimed writer Emily Rapp will discuss and sign The Still Point of the Turning World: A Mother’s Story, a memoir of her son being diagnosed at nine months old with Tay-Sachs disease, a rare and always-fatal degenerative disorder.
Can’t make it to the signing? Request an autographed copy here: books@tatteredcover.com
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