The Seeing Glass
A memoir by Jacquelin Gorman Robin Gorman was among those diagnosed autistic by Leo Kanner. Seven years younger, his sister Jackie fearfully watched her family's interactions with Robin, as well as his internment at Rosewood, a hospital home where Robin was tranquilized and strait-jacketed. Robin eventually left Rosewood, but was hit by a car and killed a few years later.
In 1991, Jackie Gorman's went in to the hospital after her housekeeper claimed that there was blood on her. When the doctor covered her left eye, she realized that she could see nothing out of her right eye. The color red was gone from both eyes. Shortly thereafter, Jackie awoke one morning with no sight at all. For ten and a half weeks, her sight remained nonexistent. During that time, Jackie spent a lot of time relieving her time with her brother, remembering their childhood with intense visual detail.
This memoir is written alternating past and present for most of the book. The two narratives support each other. The seeing glass, the title, is the part that bind the two stories most. After relieving her many memories of Robin, Jackie decides to look through the things that Robin had when he died. Among his possessions she find one of the pieces of colored glass that Robin used to look through. She find that it also helps her to see, while many of the colors remain out of her sight.
Reading the reviews on the back of this book made me mad. The majority describe Robin's life as short and tragic. Happily, Gorman does not describe her brother's life as tragic; it is the adult reception of him that is tragic. What made Jackie lose her sight and why she got it back is not clear. At one point, the doctor says that her chances of having Multiple Sclerosis are 80 to 90 percent, but whether or not Jackie has Multiple Sclerosis is never divulged. Jackie presents herself as a timid person. Although she appears to be facing life more decissively by the end of her narrative, I would have liked to see her grow further.
Question: Is institutionalization of autists ever a good idea?
Happy reading.
