[blparent] collective letter from Blind parents RE: Ryan Knighton's Book

Wed Jan 4 02:05:50 UTC 2012

Debbie,

I think this is a wonderful idea. Not only should we write the letter and
send it to him in the mail, but we could also send him a brochure "parenting
without sight". Maybe he might learn something. 

So who is volunteering to write this letter? 

Marsha  

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Deborah Kent Stein
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 8:43 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blparent] Ryan Knighton's Book

We could compose a collective letter from the NFB Blind Parents Interest 
Group, and I also think it would be valuable to barrage This American Life 
with individual letters and to get a number of critical reviews up on 
Amazon.  To write a review you really need to read the book, so this 
undertaking will not be for the faint of heart.

Debbie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marsha Drenth" <marsha.drenth at gmail.com>
To: "'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 7:35 PM
Subject: Re: [blparent] Ryan Knighton's Book

> JMO, but I do believe that we need as a group, write to NPR and to Amazon.
> Usually Amazon has a reviews on the page for the product, we could post to
> that, telling people the truth.
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Jo Elizabeth Pinto
> Sent: Sunday, January 01, 2012 8:19 PM
> To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
> Subject: [blparent] Ryan Knighton's Book
>
> I did a little research on the Ryan Knighton book featured on This 
> American
> Life.  If you were appalled before, check out these details from Amazon's
> page on "C'mon Papa" Dispatches from a Dad in the Dark."  This book is
> apparently not available to people in the United States--thank God.  It 
> will
> be at some point, though.
>
>
> Editorial Reviews
> Review
> NATIONAL BESTSELLER
>
> "Every new parent behaves like they're the first human to have given 
> birth,
> and you don't always want to be seated beside them at a dinner party. What
> makes Knighton special is that, being blind, he's exquisitely attuned to
> every detail of the experience, every moment of joy and embarrassment, in 
> a
> way that can make the merely sighted feel frankly unperceptive. His book
> made me want to have another kid, just to see what I missed the first time
> round."
> - Daniel Richler, author of Kicking Tomorrow
>
> "A warm, insightful and very funny book. Knighton is a writer you enjoy in
> the moment and think about later."
> - Timothy Taylor, author of Stanley Park
>
> "Ryan Knighton can't see, true. But his capacity to look inward, to create

> a
> landscape of what it is to be a blind parent, is nothing short of 
> profound.
> He's also hilarious, and I'm warning you, you're going to cry, too. C'mon
> Papa is a memoir like no other, about a life like no other."
> - Alicia Erian, author of Towelhead
>
> "Painfully funny. Whether he's writing about almost getting run over,
> role-playing a cervix or losing his infant daughter in the snow, Knighton 
> is
> wise, witty, moving and assured."
> - Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean
>
> "A wonderful writer with a gift for laughter when the situation requires 
> it;
> and even when it doesn't, he is still able to make it work. . . . 
> Incredibly
> honest, eloquent and moving."
> - Ottawa Citizen
>
> "Funny and moving, this is neither a fact-driven public service 
> announcement
> nor a romanticized representation of blindness. . . . Well-written,
> thoughtful and engaging, this is a discussion of parenting with a
> difference, a book valuable not so much because it tells a remarkable 
> story
> but because it tells its story remarkably well."
> - Winnipeg Free Press
> &#16...
>
>
> Ryan Knighton's humorous and perceptive tales of fatherhood take us inside
> an unusual new family, one bound by its father's particular darkness and
> light.
>
> C'mon Papa is Ryan Knighton's heartbreaking and hilarious voyage through 
> the
> first year of fatherhood. Becoming a father is a stressful, daunting rite 
> of
> passage to be sure, but for a blind father, the fears are unimaginably
> heightened. Ryan will have to find novel ways to adapt to nearly every
> aspect of parenting: the most basic skills are nearly impossible to
> contemplate, let alone master. And how will Ryan get to know this 
> pre-verbal
> bundle of coos and burps when he can't see her smile, or look into her 
> eyes
> for hints of the person to come?
>
> But this is no pity party, and Ryan has no time for sentimentality. 
> Tackling
> these hurdles with grace and humour, Ryan is determined to do his part - 
> and
> this is where the fun starts. From holding his daughter as she wails into
> the night to their first nerve-wracking walk to the cafe, no activity
> between father and daughter is without its pitfalls. In his struggle to
> "see" Tess, Ryan reimagines the relationship between father and child 
> during
> that first chaotic year.
>
> C'mon Papa: Dispatches from a Dad in the Dark is Ryan Knighton's second
> memoir, written after the birth of his daughter, Tess. (I reviewed
> Knighton's Cockeyed: a Memoir in April.) In his latest book, Knighton 
> writes
> of his experiences as a blind father raising a daughter.
>
> C'mon Papa is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the
> conception, where Knighton's wife Tracy suffers a miscarriage as a result 
> of
> a molar pregnancy. Tracy goes through chemotherapy and the Knightons must
> wait a year before trying again to conceive. The second part is about the
> birth and Knighton's trials with an infant. The third part deals with 
> blind
> life with a two-year-old. I did not find this story as funny as Cockeyed,
> although it still was a book I couldn't put down. Knighton writes of his
> failures at diaper-changing and baby-minding. After a heavy snowfall,
> Knighton loses his daughter while they are playing outside and there is a
> sense of panic that infects the reader until they are reunited. More tales
> of near-disaster, or even near-death, are included. The toughest time for
> Knighton is trying to care for Tess while she is a baby. It gets easier 
> for
> him when she is a toddler since she, even at the age of two, can walk and
> see and lead her father around.
>
> Unfortunately I missed seeing Ryan at an author appearance in Toronto 
> while
> I was in Halifax in early May. It would have been a pleasure to meet him;
> even more so now that I have read his latest memoir.
>
>
> Maybe we should write to This American Life and ask that equal airtime be
> given to competency.
>
> Jo Elizabeth
>
> "How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young,
> compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant 
> of
> the weak and the strong.  Because someday in life you will have been all 
> of
> these."--George Washington Carver, 1864-1943, American scientist
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