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Title: Alex: The Life of a Child
ISBN: 1558535527
Author:
Frank Deford
Publicate Date: 1997-08-01
Publish: 1997-08-01
List Price: $13.98
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $8.87
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.07
Amazon Merchant Price: $12.58
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Very personal for me
I watched the excellent TV movie made of this book when I was around 8 and then read the book over and over, until it fell apart. It absolutely broke my heart. When I was in high school and I met my first husband, I found out that he had lost a stepbrother to cystic fibrosis, who made it to the age of 18 before he died. Years later, my first husband still had the things Scotty willed to him, a poster and all of his Weird Al tapes (the Make a Wish Foundation helped Scotty to meet Weird Al at a concert and got to go backstage, shortly before he died). His remaining stepbrother, shortly after we married, married a woman with three children. Her youngest, a daughter, had severe CF. We loved her dearly, and was devastated when she died, like Alex, at the age of 8.
This is a heartbreaking book, but it's worth it. After you're done reading the book, donate money to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Another heartbreaking story on their site explains why they use roses on a lot of their promotional materials. A mother on the Board of Directors who had several kids with cystic fibrosis, was overheard by her toddler son on a phone call. He was too young to understand what she was saying, and too young to know he had a fatal disease, so he asked his mother what "sixty-five roses" meant. Many children now call CF "sixty five roses" and that's why the CF Foundation uses rose imagery.
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2: Alex from bookrescue
excellent service. book received in excellent condition, just as described. would definitely order through bookrescue again.
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3: Not easy...
As the father of an 8 year old daughter with CF (who even sorta looks like Alex), you can imagine that this is not an easy read for me. I read it once 8 years ago, when she was diagnosed, and it was bad....I have tried to re-read it again 8 years later and it's even harder to get through. Not a day goes by where I don't think about that I most likely will have to go thru what Frank did.
I"m not sure i'll be able to handle it. My optimism that there will be a cure in time has dwindled to stark reality that it's not likely to happen soon enough. Thank you Frank for writing this, at least I know i'm not alone.
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4: God Bless Alex
After supporting Cystic Fibrosis as one of my personal charities for many years, I saw this book in a used book store and bought it. I didn't read it for some time. In fact, it was after I met a family who had a son with CF. I became friends with him - and only a few months later, close to his 21st birthday, he was gone. Then I read the book.. I must say, this is a heartbreaker - but Alex is such an amazing young girl! Written from the experiences of a father watching this terrible disease take his little girl. I strongly recommend reading - and then reaching out to your local Cystic Fibrosis Chapter.
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5: Loved it and hated it
My daughter was diagnosed with CF 4 months ago at the age of 2.5 yrs. I was immediately drawn to books written from the parent perspective (it seems most are written by young adults who have it), and I first read "From a Taste of Salt" and then "Alex".
I mostly loved this book; I love how well Deford delves into the psychological aspects (of ALL the family) of having a child in the house with this disease. I can easily picture in my dealings with my own daughter many of the conversations with Alex he relates.
There are two things I disliked. One is that he really over-makes Alex to be a saint. Everyone says my daughter is so sweet and so good at taking her medicines and therapy and yadda yadda, but would you ever say the OPPOSITE to a parent with a sick child? My daughter is still a toddler and no saint, but Deford leaves out most of the day-to-day "normal" parts of her life that would show her regular humanity instead of her sainthood.
Secondly, It became obvious at times that Deford was, unfortunately, projecting some of his own thoughts, feelings, and memories onto Alex's actions. I do not blame him for this one bit, considering the great devistation it is to lose a child and then try to write about it. But for some reason it really annoyed me.
Overall an excellent book, and I recommend it to any parent with a newly diagnosed child struggling through the emotional and psychological steps of accepting CF. You find out that you are not alone in your many confusing thoughts. I only wish he had perhaps been a more religious man, and touched on the acceptance of this disease from God.
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