The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes: A Mother's Story

I can't truthfully say that I've read all that many memoirs in my life; I've read fewer still about families coping with mental illness. That said, Davenport's book stands tall not just as an historical record of her family's nearly unimaginable struggles, but as a creative work written with an ability to construct an almost literary structure, framing the events in an emotional and chronological span that encompasses multiple lives, decades, and locations. Because of Davenport's skill as a writer, "The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes" encompasses not just the primary story at hand, but Davenport's own experiences growing up as an aspiring poet (including the common tendency among poets to glorify mental illness as a divine state), her perceptions of mental illness, and the struggle to make sense of the chemical and psychological tethers that bind her son, Chase, and baffle caregivers at all levels of the medical community. Her cross-country travels as a professor, the dissolution of a failed marriage, and her attempts to simulate a normal life (even when none seemed possible) with her daughter, Haley, as well as her struggles against a health care system that constant seeks loopholes in order to push the most difficult patients (who are, by default, those also in the most need of care) out into a nearby alley imbues the true-life story with rich, complex emotions and situations. At times, the book reads like an especially intense one-act play between two players; at other times, gentle memories or sly asides evoke not just the low moments, but also the flickering moments of relief and clarity. Far from maudlin, the book is written by an author with a gift for (and love of) language that dissects fleeting, intangible emotions and delivers them to the reader in a very comprehensible way. If you are a parent who has traveled down this same difficult path, you will no doubt find solace in aspects of this book. However, readers with no comparable experiences would still be advised to immerse themselves in this intense, harrowing, and ultimately transformative memoir.

When I picked up this book, intending to simply glance through the first few pages, I found myself instantly drawn into Dr. Randi Davenport's finely spun world, and was unable to put the book down until I had finished it. Riveting, painful, and, ultimately, inspiring, this is an incredible book. It is a story worth telling, as well as a story well told. Davenport has found the courage to chronicle her son's illness without any melodramatic embellishments or overwrought appeals to the reader. Her story is told in a frank, stark, and oddly beautiful style that at once makes her overwhelming love for her children plain, though she does not attempt to paint herself as a heroine or as anything other than a mother struggling to do the best for her kids in an impossible situation. I have read many memoirs in which forgettable writing is made up for by an interesting story, and others in which a rather boring, ordinary narrative is rendered memorable through the use of skilled writing. This falls into neither of those categories. The Boy Who Loves Tornadoes is one of those rare memoirs in which a truly captivating story is brought to life by a talented writer. Davenport's prose is spare, gorgeous, and incredibly affecting. This moving story of her son's illness, her daughter's sadness, and the desintegration of their family plays out like a feature film, with characters so well drawn that they appear in the reader's head. The structure of the book pulls the reader along like a pair of speeding trains, with scenes from the present interspersed with memories from the past, until the two timelines crash together and create one heartbreakingly clear picture of a child in crisis. This is a book written by a mother about her children and her attempts to do her best for both of them, especially her son, who is diagnosed with developmental disabilities and mental illness. Yet this book will not appeal merely to the parents of children with special needs, or the parents of any children, or to people who love someone with a disability. This book speaks to the humanity and the ability to love that is inside all of us. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever loved anyone else. Period.

This is truly a riveting book. Once I started it, I could not put it down. Everyone has a story to tell or so the saying goes, but none like the story that Randi Davenport tells in her new book, The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes. This author's journey through life as a wife and mother of two children who is forced to face the devastating impact of mental illness in her own family when her husband abandons them due to his own mental incapacity and leaves her alone to raise and care for a daughter and son who has debilitating mental health issues of his own. This beautifully written story is a true testament, in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles, of perseverance, persistence, and positive possibilities for the future. Readers will ride a tidal wave of emotion ranging from love and optimism, to anger and despair, back to triumph and hope for our society. Mental illness can no longer be kept behind closed doors nor can it be the responsibility of the parent alone to care for their family members or maneuver through our health care system. If this book does one thing it reinforces that every child is truly a gift in their own unique way. Each child offers value and worth to the human experience.

"The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes" is about a family trying to deal with doctors who are baffled by a boy whose illness doesn't fit any known medical category (he's not quite autistic and not quite psychotic and not quite mentally deficient) and struggling with government and insurance company bureaucracies that range from merely indifferent to downright cruel. Yet, for all that, it's an upbeat story about how sheer doggedness and love, even when it does not quite triumph, creates a life worth affirming, both for the mother and her children. This is a great book: well-written, moving, and about how the ways we care about each other are the true markers of our humanity (or lack of it).

I couldn't put this book down once I started reading. For any parent, and especially for parents of children with special needs or whose families have been impacted by mental illness, this book is truly inspirational. The author's honesty in telling her story, and the important eye-opening messages within her story, will make others feel less alone in whatever day to day challenges they may be facing. Although the subject matter of the book is terribly heart-wrenching and difficult, the beauty of the writing completely draws you in. I highly recommend this book!