Customer Reviews
Very Interesting Read 
2007-12-07
This is a very interesting read. I am a mother of 5 children 2 of whome have autism and I have read many books on the subject. This story was like none that I have ever read before. I would have to say that the author and his wife have done the most amazing job of parenting this little boy and they must be truly wonderful people. Emily, DJ's mother must be so knowledgeable and so kind and patient. She is such an inspiration. DJ's father also impressed me, with his determination to give DJ the life he is entitled to. It is a wonderful story which touches on so many interesting and rarely spoken about topics in regard to disabilites. I was delighted to reach the end of the book and see just how much DJ had improved, and to know that the outcome of a little boy's life has been changed so dramatically for the better thanks to the kindness of two very special people.
I did how ever find some of this book very hard to read, the shocking abuse that DJ suffered in foster care, before his wonderful parents adopted him - I found this very disturbing and distressing. I also felt that the author goes off on a few tangents about his theories and quotes several other authors in great detail which I found a bit boring and hard to read.
Overall it was an amazing book.
Paradigm Altering Book 
2007-09-10
Savarese's book on autism is a paradigm-altering read. In this memoir he recalls all that went through the transition of his young adopted boy as a noncumunicative "thing" (as seen by society), to a poetic activist. This book is more than a history of one family, it is also a commentary on our foster care system, how we treat those with disabilities and our education system. It also discusses the difficulty in changing scientific paradigms.
Although Savarese's prose and simile often get in the way - making the reading more difficult as you try to decipher some of the esoteric analogies - they are often very humorous, in a story filled with the tragedy of a boy tossed into society's dumpster. It is a story of sexual abuse, physical abuse and neglect. It is the story of a child abandoned and mistreated that is then rescued by his loving, adoptive parents. What I found very interesting about Savarese's far left agenda, is that he recognizes the problems that we have had in addressing how to care for orphaned children and that neither the left nor the right have any really good solutions. The solutions are found in the path that the Savarese's took - personal involvement and dedication to the weakest in our society.
Unfortunately, after reading of the untold sacrifices made by the Savarese's, I would come to question whether any of us have the charity and strength to do what they have done.
This book was difficult to put down and hard to pick up to read. The pain suffered by DJ (their autistic boy) made it difficult to pick up while the odyssey of DJ from a "non-person" to a powerful and strong advocate-kid via facilitated communication is amazing. I often felt like I was reading about an alien that had visited the earth.
A must-read! 2007-08-15
This is a brilliant, moving memoir that I would recommend to any reader. Despite the seriousness of its topics, this is a page-turner that you will not be able to put down (I read it non-stop in two days, as did my mother!). As someone with no experience or knowledge of autism, I found Savarese's book to be incredibly informative on many levels and lucidly written. But more than that, Reasonable People asks provocative questions about how we define family, community, and inclusion.
A must read!
Here is humanity at it's worst, and at it's best! 2007-07-29
This book will bring tears of acknowledgement and smiles of joy for those families who grapple with some of the these same issues. I truly believe the universe brings certain people together......Ralph, Emily, and DJ are three of those. It is time the world changes the perception of competence and what can be accomplished in believing that, right from the beginning. Ralph is a talented, thoughtful writer, and our family thanks him, and all the Savarese family for opening their lives up for this incredible story.
Healing through communication 2007-07-24
This book had me on the edge of my seat wanting to know how D.J. would work through his many traumas and losses. One wishes that all so-called autism experts would read this book carefully and take to heart its many essential messages, including among others, that even very young children with autism are excrutiatingly aware of what is happening to them and the parts others are playing in their lives--both positively and negatively.
D.J., who would be considered "low-functioning" by most so-called autism experts demonstrates through Facilitated Communication his fine mind and his exquisite sensitivity to the feelings of others, as well as his great concern for the rights and welfare of other "disabled" individuals. This book is a "must-read" for all who are interested in autism. Buy an extra copy and slip it to someone you know to be stuck in the clearly outdated paradigm that says most autistics are retarded, have no sense of self, lack a "theory of mind", are uninterested in social contact, and are best treated/educated in segregated settings.
Harriett James
Healing through communication 2007-07-24
A testament to uncommon devotion and common possibilities. "Why would someone adopt a badly abused, nonspeaking, six-year-old from foster care?" So the author was asked at the outset of his adoption-as-a-first-resort adventure. Part love story, part political manifesto about "living with conviction in a cynical time," the memoir traces the development of DJ, a boy written off as profoundly retarded and now, six years later, earning all "A's" at a regular school. Neither a typical saga of autism nor simply a challenge to expert opinion,
Reasonable People illuminates the belated emergence of a self in language. And it does so using DJ's own words, expressed through the once discredited but now resurgent technique of facilitated communication. In this emotional page-turner, DJ reconnects with the sister from whom he was separated, begins to type independently, and explores his experience of disability, poverty, abandonment, and sexual abuse. "Try to remember my life," he says on his talking computer, and remember he does in the most extraordinarily perceptive and lyrical way.
Asking difficult questions about the nature of family, the demise of social obligation, and the meaning of neurological difference, Savarese argues for a reasonable commitment to human possibility and caring.
An Exceptional Book 2007-07-24
This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Written by Ralph Savarese, certainly with Emily's help. Their young son DJ is literally saved by this wonderful couple, and given a real chance to be an almost normal boy. The Savareses are an exceptional family, and I loved that the book was written with love, warmth, and humor. They didn't shy away from the troubles they had, but stuck to it and finally they were able to adopt DJ and make him part of their family, with alot of help from their parents and siblings. Go on and read the book with an open mind, and you will be surprised at how much you get out of it, and more importantly, how much you will enjoy the book.
Reasonable People is a Powerful Story of Love and Possibility 2007-07-04
This book has many reasons to recommend it. For anyone with a specific interest in the literature of autism, this story and the complex issues it describes makes fascinating reading. For a more general audience, Savarese makes us question our notions of family and of our responsibility to a wider community. More broadly, he forces us to redefine our understanding of what is normal and what is possible -- as individuals, as families, as a society. There are no simple answers, and the author does not spare us the ambiguities. All is written in a style that reminds us that Savarese is, in fact, a poet.
Most compelling for me, however, was the memoir. Once in its grip, the book is hard to put down, often carrying me along as though I were lost in a novel. I was awed by the choices made by Savarese and his wife, and moved by the fierce love that binds them to their son. These three people are brave, humane, loving -- and fully human. I hope the author will let us know what becomes of his son and his family.
Unique and profound 2007-06-29
Reasonable People is a unique and profound roller coaster ride of book. I would highly recommend it because the story of this boy DJ is so moving and compelling. It's both a traditional narrative in which the human spirit and family love triumph over the hardship of trauma and autism and at the same time, a treatise on the current understanding of nature of autism, the role of trauma, on parenthood and adoption, on the welfare, foster care and educational systems, on family life in America in the 21st Century.
This is a book dense with insight and observation. Savarese doesn't spare the reader complexity and ambiguity while at the same time taking us on a ride through heartbreak, exhaustion, hope, terror and joy, frustration and loyalty and everything in between. In fact, in the writing of this book, the author shows the same perseverance, commitment and dedication to detail that he and his wife demonstrate in their relationship with their son, DJ.
I would love to see this book nominated for a Pulitzer.
Any family or collection interested in autism will want to learn from this. 2007-06-17
REASONABLE PEOPLE: A MEMOIR OF AUTISM AND ADOPTION tells of the author's adopted teen son DJ, discarded at the age of three and today making great strides using the Facilitated Communication technique. Autism is more a spectrum of conditions than a single condition as the name implies, embracing everything from basic communication difficulties to Asperger's Syndrome. FC is a technique from Australia involving a facilitator who aids an autistic person in typing: REASONABLE PEOPLE discusses not only one family's experience, but changing treatment models for autism. Any family or collection interested in autism will want to learn from this.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
