Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR's Polio Haven

This is a beautiful book, a perfect memoir. Susan Richards was stricken with polio as a baby, and her devoted mother(and father) sent her to Warm Springs, GA to try and help her walk normally again. Certainly not the sickest child at the haven created by FDR, Susan was by far the most spirited. This is her very honest recollection of her time spent at Warm Springs from age 11 to 12. She details in heartbreaking detail the relationship between herself and her mother, and between herself and the other "characters" at Warm Springs; Father James, Joey Buckley, Caroline Slover, Magnolia, Paisley Jean, Rosie. She also paints a self portrait of a brave yet fearful girl trying to find her way in the world despite her disability. I have given this book to my 12 year old daughter to read. It is a lovely book that changes the way you see the world.

I was anxious to read this book because like the author, I spent a good part of my childhood life in Warm Springs. I truly enjoyed this memoir which brought back memories and feelings of my own childhood. I laughed and cried and relived many of the author's experiences which were very similar to my own. The book is very well written and I have lent it out to friends that have not had any ties to polio, except knowing me. Everyone has enjoyed this light and entertaining reading.

There is not a whole lot out there, as far as recollections of the most recent polio years in the US. Having had the disease in 1954 myself, I found this to be a friendly book. It's a great story of how polio people never quit. We, as a group regardless of our various disabilities, have had successfully full lives. And those of us who are dealing with Post Polio Syndrome just keep on keeping on, as does the author of this book. Hats off to Susan Richards Shreve. Thanks for a good read.

Yesterday, after listening to Susan Shreve speak on NPR's Talk of the Nation, I immediately ran out to get a copy of her new book, "Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR's Polio Haven". A longtime "history buff" of FDR, and of particular interest in the history of Warm Springs, I hoped that Shreve's memoir would add to my knowledge of the camp through the eyes of her own experience. What I found was a deeping moving story of a girl, struggling with her condition, all the while learning about others, which in turn, she learns about herself. Susan Shreve was diagnosed with polio at quite a young age. She is moved to Warm Springs at the tender age of 11, in which her hijinx ensues. What comes across in the book quite quickly that dear young Susan is quite an imp, impressionable, and very much a part of the scene. She engages in several adventures that had me laughing outloud, and some that were serious and reflective. Shreve manages, in like so many memoirs, to recover a time and a place that has long since passed, but to do so in such eloquence that I found myself reading and rereading pages and paragraphs from their simple beauty of words. To wit: "Muscle to muscle, trace to trace, I am looking for a sign of possibility. At Warm Springs, traces is the word for hope. When I think of the word "traces" now, it is as a footprint or a shadow or a verb, like "unearth" or "expose" or "reveal." I've been looking for traces in my childhood that will bring the years I spent in Warm Springs into some kind of focus. In its intention, the process is very much the same as it was when I lived there and turned my attention to discovering what remained." The sheer elegance of her writing is precious, exact. It is reminscient of the cleverness of Michael Cunningham, or the beauty of Grief by Andrew Holleran. In a couple of months, perhaps in the midst of summer, I may revisit this book, and spend time again at Warm Springs, just to bask in the glow of her words. This would be an excellent book for any reading group, a gift for a mother or sister, or someone facing a time of trial in their lives. Thanks to Susan Sherve for crafting such an excellent portrait of her times at Warm Springs!

I loved this book. It is engaging, warm, honest, and often very funny. The mischievous but well-meaning protagonist is so likeable as a child struggling to grow up and trying to be a good daughter and person, while often feeling like an outsider. You don't have to have had a childhood illness to find this character totally relatable and the book completely charming.