A Client Called Noah: A Family Journey Continued

Rating:
Summary: A Natural Conclusion for Noah; His Family Goes On
Review: This is the third installment of the true story of Noah Greenfeld, a severely brain-damaged (his family now rejects the term "autistic") and behavior-disordered individual. Told entirely in extracts from Noah's father's diary, the story is honest and compelling. This is the natural conclusion to the saga of the unchanging Noah, discussing his fate and his affect on the world that could not affect him.

I have not read the second volume, A Place for Noah, but I clearly remember reading the first, A Child Called Noah. Child is mostly about Josh's hopes for Noah, the struggle for a cure or a treatment or even an answer. In Client, Josh seems to have found the answer: Noah is as he always will be, and there is no hope of improvement.

Stagnation sounds like a rather dull basis for a book, and if Client was only about Noah, it would indeed be uninteresting. But the focus has shifted over the years, and if the book fails a portrait of a child, it succeeds as the story of a family. Josh is primarily chronicling the struggles of his family - his normal son's teenage years, his marital difficulties, his problems with heart disease. The honesty will resonate with anyone who has ever lived in a family, with a disabled child or without.

Anyone who hopes for a tale of miracle cures and family perfection will be disappointed; there are no miracles in this book, no ideal worlds. But A Client Called Noah offers some unanswerable questions to ponder, and a tale about one family that could apply to any family.

Rating:
Summary: A Natural Conclusion for Noah; His Family Goes On
Review: This is the third installment of the true story of Noah Greenfeld, a severely brain-damaged (his family now rejects the term "autistic") and behavior-disordered individual. Told entirely in extracts from Noah's father's diary, the story is honest and compelling. This is the natural conclusion to the saga of the unchanging Noah, discussing his fate and his affect on the world that could not affect him.

I have not read the second volume, A Place for Noah, but I clearly remember reading the first, A Child Called Noah. Child is mostly about Josh's hopes for Noah, the struggle for a cure or a treatment or even an answer. In Client, Josh seems to have found the answer: Noah is as he always will be, and there is no hope of improvement.

Stagnation sounds like a rather dull basis for a book, and if Client was only about Noah, it would indeed be uninteresting. But the focus has shifted over the years, and if the book fails a portrait of a child, it succeeds as the story of a family. Josh is primarily chronicling the struggles of his family - his normal son's teenage years, his marital difficulties, his problems with heart disease. The honesty will resonate with anyone who has ever lived in a family, with a disabled child or without.

Anyone who hopes for a tale of miracle cures and family perfection will be disappointed; there are no miracles in this book, no ideal worlds. But A Client Called Noah offers some unanswerable questions to ponder, and a tale about one family that could apply to any family.

Rating:
Summary: JOURNEY TOWARDS ACCEPTANCE
Review: This third installment of the "Noah Chronicles," as told strictly from his author father's diary entries is a story etched in sorrow. Noah, born 7/1/66 exhibits behavior that can best be described as severely autistic; he functions well below age level and has been labelled brain damaged in addition to autistic.

The first book in the trilogy, "A Child Called Noah" is a chronicle of hope transformed into despair over the lack of progress and rapid deterioration in Noah. This book covers the years 1966-1971 and one shares the anguish of this family who cannot reach this boy. Karl, Noah's older brother (b. 11/64) serves as a "normal foil," for Noah; from the author's own descriptions, Karl stands in stark contrast to his unchanging, noncommunicative, multiply challenged brother.

In the second installment, "A Place For Noah," the author vents his rage at Noah's condition, at the professionals with whom they have come in contact with and at Noah himself. He is irate over Noah's lack of progress and the unsatisfactory programs where Noah was then enrolled. His anger is palpable; one feels the rage he poignantly expresses. He lashes out at Noah; on 6/4/73 he says that by that time the following year, Noah will definitely be placed in an institution because it will be the best thing for him, Josh and that he "has to get rid of him." In his 5/19/76 entry, he angrily raps Noah's knuckles when the boy tries to take his toast; he kicks him from behind when Noah is not looking. His anger flows throughout this book. He stops "chasing doctors" for Noah; he fights valiantly for both sons to have good, appropriate educational programs. His battles have borne some fruit; by 1976 his wife Foumi runs an after school program for developmentally delayed children in their area. This book covers the years 1971 - 1976/7.

In "Client," which opens in January of 1977 and closes in 1980, the author finally says that he is able to accept Noah. Noah is briefly institutionalized. Irate over the poor care Noah is receiving, the Greenfelds withdraw him and their search for a satisfactory program begins anew. By the early 1980s, the Greenfelds purchase a second house where Noah resides with a battery of caretakers. For some years this arrangement appeared to be helpful. Karl runs into his share of problems, including brushes with the law in 1979. He resented the chronicles, telling the author that he cherished his privacy. It is for Karl's sake the book ends in 1980, with a very sketchy update of the intervening years 1980 - 1986.

What makes the "Noah" trilogy so poignant is that it is told entirely from a parent's hard wrought experience; Josh Greenfeld was actively involved in all phases of parenting Karl and Noah during a time when very few men did, e.g. custodial/infant care.

Noah, from all accounts did not show significant progress in any social, cognitive or affective sphere; by 1990 he was institutionalized in a state hospital in Orange County. Multiply challenged and unable to communicate in a meaningful way, Noah remains lost in an institutional limbo.

Rating:
Summary: JOURNEY TOWARDS ACCEPTANCE
Review: This third installment of the "Noah Chronicles," as told strictly from his author father's diary entries is a story etched in sorrow. Noah, born 7/1/66 exhibits behavior that can best be described as severely autistic; he functions well below age level and has been labelled brain damaged in addition to autistic.

The first book in the trilogy, "A Child Called Noah" is a chronicle of hope transformed into despair over the lack of progress and rapid deterioration in Noah. This book covers the years 1966-1971 and one shares the anguish of this family who cannot reach this boy. Karl, Noah's older brother (b. 11/64) serves as a "normal foil," for Noah; from the author's own descriptions, Karl stands in stark contrast to his unchanging, noncommunicative, multiply challenged brother.

In the second installment, "A Place For Noah," the author vents his rage at Noah's condition, at the professionals with whom they have come in contact with and at Noah himself. He is irate over Noah's lack of progress and the unsatisfactory programs where Noah was then enrolled. His anger is palpable; one feels the rage he poignantly expresses. He lashes out at Noah; on 6/4/73 he says that by that time the following year, Noah will definitely be placed in an institution because it will be the best thing for him, Josh and that he "has to get rid of him." In his 5/19/76 entry, he angrily raps Noah's knuckles when the boy tries to take his toast; he kicks him from behind when Noah is not looking. His anger flows throughout this book. He stops "chasing doctors" for Noah; he fights valiantly for both sons to have good, appropriate educational programs. His battles have borne some fruit; by 1976 his wife Foumi runs an after school program for developmentally delayed children in their area. This book covers the years 1971 - 1976/7.

In "Client," which opens in January of 1977 and closes in 1980, the author finally says that he is able to accept Noah. Noah is briefly institutionalized. Irate over the poor care Noah is receiving, the Greenfelds withdraw him and their search for a satisfactory program begins anew. By the early 1980s, the Greenfelds purchase a second house where Noah resides with a battery of caretakers. For some years this arrangement appeared to be helpful. Karl runs into his share of problems, including brushes with the law in 1979. He resented the chronicles, telling the author that he cherished his privacy. It is for Karl's sake the book ends in 1980, with a very sketchy update of the intervening years 1980 - 1986.

What makes the "Noah" trilogy so poignant is that it is told entirely from a parent's hard wrought experience; Josh Greenfeld was actively involved in all phases of parenting Karl and Noah during a time when very few men did, e.g. custodial/infant care.

Noah, from all accounts did not show significant progress in any social, cognitive or affective sphere; by 1990 he was institutionalized in a state hospital in Orange County. Multiply challenged and unable to communicate in a meaningful way, Noah remains lost in an institutional limbo.