Description

“The Anti-Romantic Child is remarkable. This haunting and lyrical memoir will be an invaluable and heartening guide to all who find themselves in similar situations and indeed anyone confronting an unforeseen challenge.”—Marie Brenner, writer for Vanity Fair and author of Apples and Oranges


 

With an emotionally resonant combination of memoir and literature, Wordsworth scholar Priscilla Gilman recounts the challenges of raising a son with hyperlexia, a developmental disorder neurologically counterpoint to dyslexia. Gilman explores the complexities of our hopes and expectations for our children and ourselves. With luminous prose and a searing, personal story evocative of A Year of Magical Thinking and A Year of Reading Proust, Gilman’s The Anti-Romantic Child is an unforgettable exploration of what happens when we lean to embrace the unexpected.  


A mother’s romantic ideals meet the reality of her son’s brilliant, baffling mind.


  • Hyperlexia: Discovering her son Benjamin’s precocious ability to read is not a sign of genius, but a complex condition that challenges every assumption she holds about communication and connection.
  • Special Needs Parenting: A raw and honest account of navigating a world of therapies, diagnoses, and unforeseen challenges while fighting to see the unique child behind the label.
  • A Mother’s Memoir: With the lyrical sensibility of a literary scholar, Gilman chronicles her own transformation from a mother grieving a lost dream to one celebrating the profound, unexpected gifts of her son.
  • Literature and Life: How the poetry of Wordsworth—and the romantic ideals of childhood he championed—becomes both a source of pain and a powerful lens for understanding and ultimately embracing her "anti-romantic" son.

About the author(s)

Priscilla Gilman grew up in New York City and is a former professor of English literature at Yale University and Vassar College. She has taught poetry appreciation to inmates in a restorative justice program and to New York City public school students. The Anti-Romantic Child, her first book, was excerpted in Newsweek magazine and featured on the cover of its international edition; it was an NPR Morning Edition Must-Read, Slate's Book of the Week, and selected as one the Best Books of 2011 by the Leonard Lopate Show. Gilman writes regularly for publications including the Daily Beast, the New York Times, and the Huffington Post, speaks frequently at schools, conferences, and organizations about parenting, education, and the arts, and is a Scholar/Facilitator for the New York Council for the Humanities. She lives in New York City with her family. The Anti-Romantic Child has been nominated for a Books for a Better Life Award for Best First Book.

Reviews

“Rapturously beautiful and deeply moving, profound and marvelous.” - Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree

“Smart, soulful, and involving.” - Nick Hornby, The Believer

“This is a fascinating, tender, illuminating book about an extraordinary boy and his equally extraordinary mother. A wonderful read.” - Martha Beck, author of Expecting Adam and columnist for O magazine

“A book for all parents. . . . [Gilman’s] poignant story of reconciling fantasy with reality is a universal story of parental growth. A story to inspire us all.” - Ellen Galinsky, the Huffington Post

“A fantastic memoir. . . . I loved this book.” - KJ Dell'Antonia, lead blogger for the New York Times Motherlode

“What a glorious book Priscilla Gilman has written. Lively, eloquent, straightforward, and insightful, The Anti-Romantic Child deftly delineates and negotiates the complex cross-currents of a life of the mind and a life of the heart.” - Sandra Boynton, children's book author and illustrator

“A riveting and original book about love.” - Ann Beattie

“[A] lovely, thoughtful memoir.” - Boston Globe

The Anti-Romantic Child is remarkable. This haunting and lyrical memoir will be an invaluable and heartening guide to all who find themselves in similar situations and indeed anyone confronting an unforeseen challenge.” - Marie Brenner, writer at large for Vanity Fair and author of Apples and Oranges

“Every parent should read this luminous book to absorb or absorb again the truth that every child is a surprise—a revelation—to be uniquely learned and understood as well as loved.” - Mary Catherine Bateson, author of Composing A Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom

“Unforgettable. . . . I couldn’t put this book down.” - Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Happiness Project

The Anti-Romantic Child is beautiful, poetic, and heartfelt. It’s more than a mother–child story; it’s a journey of self-discovery. It’s a book every parent should read.” - Kathryn Erskine, bestselling author of Mockingbird and winner of the 2010 National Book Award

“Gilman is at once lyrical and deeply analytical as she explores the complexities of parenthood and the need to embrace the unforeseen.” - Booklist (starred review)

“A meditation on both the ‘passionate work’ of motherhood and the wonderment of childhood.” - Vogue.com

“Priscilla Gilman movingly describes how her son’s struggle with hyperlexia put her in touch with her ‘deepest sense of what’s truly meaningful.’” - Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Beast

“Priscilla Gilman’s lyrical narrative is profoundly moving and ultimately joyous. It eloquently touches the universal.” - Harold Bloom

The Anti-Romantic Child is such a profoundly moving book, I could hardly bear to read it. It is so riveting, I couldn’t stop. It is rich, informative and gorgeously written. If you don’t love it as much as I did, you must have left your heart in the taxi cab.” - Andre Gregory, theater director, writer, and star of My Dinner with Andre

“A striking celebration of the bond between a mother and son.” - Kirkus Reviews

“[A] beautifully sinuous and intensely literary celebration of the exceptional, unconventional child. . . . Her thoughtful memoir . . . delves lyrically into the rare, complex mind of the unusual child.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

More by Priscilla Gilman

More Personal Memoirs

More Biography & Autobiography

More Children with Special Needs

More Family & Relationships

More All Other Nonfiction

More Learning Disabilities

More Motherhood

More Parenting

More Parent & Adult Child

More Siblings

More Child

More Developmental

More Psychology

More Mental Health

More Emotions

More Adolescent