Marvelous in Our Eyes: A Son’s Pilgrimage to Find Meaning in His Parent’s Lives
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2020-12-31
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MFA in Creative Nonfiction
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This work is restricted for 10 years from the date listed above. No access will be permitted until the embargo has expired. Once the embargo expires the work is available only on Goucher College's campus.
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Abstract
This memoir recounts the author’s efforts to make sense of his father, his mother and his own difficulties growing up. His father, Edward Friedland was a Brooklyn-born, MIT-educated whiz kid of the 1950s, who came of age in the midst of the promise of America’s post-war boom. Still, he faced a challenge even his prodigious intellect couldn't fully master: a progressive neurological disorder that forced him to retire on disability before the age of 39. A quadriplegic on life support, with the help of his wife, he always had another scheme to reverse his fortunes.
A son's story about his parents, their efforts to deal with adversity and deciding whether their struggle was a tragedy or, just maybe, a triumph of the human spirit.
This work will appeal to those who are interested in living with disability, caregiving and how identity shapes our ability to deal with adversity. It also touches deeply on the Jewish immigrant experience in/and around New York City.