Stitches

Small is a wonderful author of books for children. I'd always assumed he must have had a wonderful childhood, that he was loved as a boy, that he was a happy child.

Not so. Stitches tells the story of Small's childhood and teen years and it is a grueling book. His father, a doctor, tried to treat Small for problems himself, and ended up poisoning him with radiation and causing cancer in Small.

Small's mother was a deeply disturbed woman, bitter with her lot, unhappy as a homemaker. She passed on her sadness to her children.

Stitches is a sad story, a tragic story. Grim. Depressing.

Yet somehow Small grew up to change things, to go down a different path than his parents had gone with him. That at least is redemptive.