A Thorn in My Pocket: Temple Grandin's Mother Tells the Family Story

To those who say this is not a "How To" book, I have to disagree. Eustacia Cutler tells us "How To" fight for a child's right to be a part of family and society. She tells "How To" stay the course when family and physicians conspire against you. "How To" overcome the feelings of guilt and being overwhelmed; "How To" get on with life. "How To" be supportive of a child who was unable to show affection and was so often at odds with the world. Temple's mother has written a beautiful, sensitive book. It is a book that fills one with hope; if Eustacia and Temple can have such a successful outcome, so perhaps can others.

Eustacia Cutler's book about raising Temple Grandin answers the two questions I've always had whenever I've heard or read about Temple Grandin. How did Temple survive in a time when everyone was warehousing their kids with autism in mental institutions and how did she succeed so well as an adult? This is not a "how-to" book on educational procedures or anything like that. By reading this autobiography, you will understand the character of Temple's mother, who quite literally saved Temple's life. Fifty-some years ago, Eustacia was the product of her time in most ways--the stay-at-home wife to a wealthy man who was bent upon institutionalizing Temple, particularly when he got the support from psychiatrists who believed at the time that the reason for Temple's autism was Eustacia herself. There's a real lesson to learn here. Instead of surrendering her child, the originally compliant Eustacia (women were supposed to be that in the 40s and 50s) changed. She intuitively knew that if she gave up whom she could be, her child would be given up as well. She fought ferociously and even walked away from her marriage and her economic well being to save her child. And at that time, when she faced a family who didn't support the divorce financially and a society that looked down on single mothers, she had four children! If there's one thing that stands out in this book, it's that you have to be who you are and all you can be in order to give that same gift to your child. Temple Grandin comes by her strength, intelligence, and creativity because she had a mother who studied every angle of whatever or whoever she could find to help her child and wasn't afraid to try anything, from allowing her child to negotiate with a local merchant to fighting for her child's right to the education Eustacia believed would save her. The reader gets a clear picture of the evolution of the science of autism over the decades with some pretty deep conclusions on Temple's mother's part. It's personal. It's incredibly written. This is NOT a how-to-raise-your-child book. It's a story about the meaning of life and society itself. I'd recommend to anyone who wants to know how character is formed-it's not just parents of children with autism. It's one of the best books I've read in a long, long time and I'm eighty years old with a library of books I've read over a lifetime!

There are so many wonderful layers to this book. I have to admit that early on I pigeon-holed Ms. Cutler, almost dismissing her, for having what appeared to be a rarified life. But her accessible language, her wit, her determination, pulled me along until I saw how very wrong I was. She cuts herself no slack as she peels back layer after layer of her life, revealing how she struggled to find ways to give her firstborn child, Temple, a shot at a life of possibilities. As the layers fell away, I could see just how high the stakes really were. Like her, some of us have found ourselves doing battle with people who say they love us and with the experts. We can identify with the pain and the personal costs to our identity, our sanity and, yes, our soul. Ms. Cutler's journey includes her involvement with people, places and events that are now acknowledged as major influences of the 20th century, giving us some rare glimpses of living history. In the end, when you remember how frighteningly easy it would have been, how expected, frankly, for Ms. Cutler to have simply put Temple in an institution, you can appreciate her love and determination to face the fear of the unknown, to eventually leave the favored, the familiar, the expected, to find her own way.

I just couldn't put down Eustacia Cutler's book. It's the most totally gripping, fascinating, amazing story I've ever read. First, the book is the story of Eustacia Cutler's belief in her child and her fierce battles to keep her child in the world (rather than institutionalize her). She repeatedly introduces Temple to new experiences in a time when children who "were different" were hidden away--sometimes, literally in closets. When, finally, Eustacia found a school that introduced Temple to the things that intrigued her (her love of animals and her ability to visualize because she thinks in pictures), Temple was inspired to become the person she became--a Ph.D. in animal science. This book is a piece of poetry in the way it's written. I've told everyone I've seen about it because the images are haunting, from the visit to the "insane" children in institutions to the myth about Frankenstein. A Thorn in My Pocket is so sensitively written, I could feel the mother's heartbeat.If you read only one book this year, this is the one you should choose. You'll be a better person for it and, if you're a parent of a child with autism, you'll have a role model to help you along the way.

I loved the book. I was fortunate enough to hear Mrs. Cutler speak a few years ago, and have been waiting for her book to be published. I found it very comforting, and insightful. It gives me much hope for my son, who seems to have a lot of the same behaviors that Temple did. I thought the part about Mrs. Cutler's life was interesting. We all must have a life outside of autism. This is not a book on how to solve your problems with your autistic child, but a book about a mother who raised a child with autism, 3 other children, and lived to write about it. It is good to know that in the end we will make it through all of this. We need also to remember Temple was raised in a time with little knowledge of how to help autisic children. I loved it, I loved it I loved it!!!!!!