Review: Schulyer's Monster: A Father's Journey with his Wordless Daughter, by Robert Rummel-Hudson

In his novel, Robert Rummel-Hudson, a popular online writer, has channeled his blog of parenting a special-needs child into a very personal memoir that doesn't flinch away from the difficult, exhausting or, frankly, unflattering. His brutally honest descriptions of his own successes and failings as a husband and father, both factual and perceptual, couch his detailed discussion of his daughter, Schuyler (pronounced Skylar), and their family's struggle to understand and overcome her challenges.

Schuyler's monster, eventually diagnosed as polymicrogyria, affects the brain differently depending upon the severity of the malformation; in Schulyer's case, her ability to speak is nonexistant. This lack of speech made determining the extent of her disability extremely difficult, and most doctors and educators extrapolated that she would always be profoundly mentally disabled. However, while her MRI results showed an extreme affect on her brain, Schuyler's joyful, outgoing personage defied those assumptions and confounded her doctors. Her eventual emergence into the realm of significant communication, via speech-enabled technology, is the direct result of her parents' conviction that their little girl was not only able, but entitled, to rise above and beyond her diagnosis and prove that she was capable of much, much more.

As Rummel-Hudson details his own struggles with first denial, then despair, and finally determination, he also shares difficult details regarding a failed previous marriage, floundering career choices, and infidelity on both his and his wife's parts. These side stories reveal a deep-seated feeling of inadequacy as a person, husband and parent, but also serve to force the reader to regard the author as just another human, rather than a flawless superhero. Many writers would prefer to focus instead on their role as champion, portraying themselves as holier-than-thou. As many parents, he tends to be much more hard on himself than anyone else would be, particularly in his circumstances; his family's efforts to help Schuyler lead them across the country, through several school districts, and quite nearly to court. His gaining inner strength and confidence are evident as the story progresses. Still, through it all, Rummel-Hudson goes straight for the underbelly, and the result is a much more balanced, human side of a very human challenge.

Rating: four out of five stars: interesting, inspiring, and human