Audiobook7 hours
The Still Point of the Turning World
Written by Emily Rapp
Narrated by Ali Ahn
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Like all mothers, Emily Rapp had ambitious plans for her first and only child, Ronan. He would be smart, loyal, physically fearless, and level-headed, but fun. He would be good at crossword puzzles like his father. He would be an avid skier like his mother. Rapp would speak to him in foreign languages and give him the best education. But all of these plans changed when Ronan was diagnosed at nine months old with Tay-Sachs disease, a rare and always-fatal degenerative disorder. Ronan was not expected to live beyond the age of three; he would be permanently stalled at a developmental level of six months. Rapp and her husband were forced to re-evaluate everything they thought they knew about parenting. They would have to learn to live with their child in the moment; to find happiness in the midst of sorrow; to parent without a future. The Still Point of the Turning World is the story of a mother' s journey through grief and beyond it. Rapp' s response to her son' s diagnosis was a belief that she needed to " make my world big"-- to make sense of her family' s situation through art, literature, philosophy, theology and myth. Drawing on a broad range of thinkers and writers, from C.S. Lewis to Sylvia Plath, Hegel to Mary Shelley' s Frankenstein, Rapp learns what wisdom there is to be gained from parenting a terminally ill child. In luminous, exquisitely moving prose she re-examines our most fundamental assumptions about what it means to be a good parent, to be a success, and to live a meaningful life.
Author
Emily Rapp
A former Fulbright scholarship recipient, Emily Rapp has received numerous awards and recognition for her work, including from the Atlantic Monthly, StoryQuarterly, and the Corporation of Yaddo. In 2006 she was the Philip Roth Writerin- Residence at Bucknell University. She is currently a professor in the M.F.A. program at Antioch University Los Angeles.
Related to The Still Point of the Turning World
Related audiobooks
Eyes to the Wind: A Memoir of Love and Death, Hope and Resistance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Family Outing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ask Me Why I Hurt: The Kids Nobody Wants and the Doctor Who Heals Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Empty Arms: Hope and Support for Those Who Have Suffered a Miscarriage, Stillbirth, or Tubal Pregnancy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Chronology of Water: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Not Fade Away: A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Autobiography of a Face Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Loved and Wanted: A Memoir of Choice, Children, and Womanhood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey with His Wordless Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Eye: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love that Boy: What Two Presidents, Eight Road Trips, and My Son Taught Me About a Parents Expectations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Home Is Burning: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Head Case: My Brain and Other Wonders Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Searching for Mom: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLike Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses, a Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nothing Was the Same: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Smile: The Story of a Face Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanishing Twins: A Marriage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5You Lost Me There: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gone: A Memoir of Love, Body, and Taking Back My Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grand: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Still Point of the Turning World
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
4 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Still Point of the Turning World by Emily Rapp is an exceptionally beautiful memoir about parenting a terminally ill child. Rapp, through the use of exceptional prose, offers readers much to think about in regards to life and death, far beyond the traditional way of thinking. While the topic may sound like a rather grim one, The Still Point of the Turning World is beautifully written, and offers readers so much to think upon that I would recommend this book to readers and especially book discussion groups.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Still Point of the Turning World (TSPOTTW) is to having a child with a fatal genetic disorder what Cheryl Strayed's Wild is to hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. In other words, the book is ostensibly about one thing, but it's actually about quite another. Both TSPOTTW and Wild are about the emotional lives of the authors. TSPOTTW goes into great detail about Emily Rapp's worldwide travels and her literary interests, and tells much less about her son's brief life with Tay-Sach's disease. The book also lacks the scientific and medical detail that would make it valuable to a broader audience. On the one hand it seems crass to criticize a book by a mother whose child died after a long, slow, heartbreaking decline. But on the other, I felt about this book the same way I felt about Wild. I'm glad I read both books, but by the time I got to the conclusions of both of them, I had had quite enough of both authors.