The Broken Cord : A Family's Ongoing Struggle with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

by Michael Dorris

Paperback, 1989

Call number

362 DORRIS

Collection

Nonfiction

Genres

Biography & Memoir

General Nonfiction

Publication

Harper Perrenial (1989), Edition: First Edition; Later Printing

Description

This book is the inspiring story of a family confronted with a problem with no known solution and the first book for the general reader that describes the tragedy and lifelong blight of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. In 1971, Michael Dorris became one of the first unmarried men in the United States to legally adopt a very young child, and affectionate Sioux Indian he named Adam. At that time, little was revealed about Adam's past except that his biological mother died of alcohol poisoning. During the course of the next two decades, the growing Dorris family (through the single-parent adoption of two more infants, and the 1981 marriage to writer Louise Erdrich, which produced three more children) went through a time of alarming discovery as the new information about the genetic and cultural causes of FAS became apparent and paralleled the family's battle to solve their oldest son's developing health and learning problems. Author Michael Dorris explains how traditions weave through the lives of many Native Americans and how alcoholism and despair have shattered so many lives. He also chronicles the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome on their adopted son and on the Native American community as a whole. -- from Publisher description.… (more)

Subjects

Fetal alcohol syndrome Family relationships

Fetal alcohol syndrome Patients Family relationships

Fetal alcohol syndrome Patients United States Biography

Fetal alcohol syndrome United States Biography

User reviews

LibraryThing member labfs39

The Broken Cord is both a personal account of the author's adoption of a boy with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and a synopsis of research on FAS through 1987, when the book was published. I found the personal, familial parts of the story to be both poignant and inspiring. As a parent and as an educator,

I could understand the conflicting desires to see only the best in your child and to acknowledge them as they are. The inclusion of the son's own attempt at autobiography was heartbreaking in its conflicting innocent warmth and tired repetition.

Both as a parent and a social anthropologist, Dorris researched FAS for years, and he includes much of it in the midst of his family story. The facts are shocking and seemingly well-documented, despite the rather anecdotal recitation of his research. The message is clear and Dorris recites it often: there is NO safe amount of alcohol that a woman can imbibe during pregnancy. Unfortunately, I found it hard to always know when Dorris was making the switch between the anecdotal and the scientific. Perhaps that in itself is part of the problem--can we separate cultural norms and the familial from the scientific? Reading the book, I was by turns despairing and militant. FAS is completely preventable, why isn't it?

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LibraryThing member anyanwubutler

Re-read for my Programming for Students with Severe Disabilities class, for an assignment/ case study of a 6 year-old with FAS, it’s still an excellent read and so I feel justified putting it on this list, when I usually don’t list books read for school here. Dorris, who I know as a children

and adult novelist, wrote this non-fiction about raising his adopted son with FAS. A few years after this book was written Adam, who’d never learned about consequences, even though he was 23 years old, was hit by a car because he didn’t look both ways. Six years later, Adam’s brother also adopted by Dorris with FAE sued him for sexual abuse. Dorris, also going through a divorce, committed suicide. He wrote before his suicide: “I tried to save three lives. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough. Maybe they were unsaveable. One is gone. One is lost. One is a danger to all who come within his line of sight.”
Alcohol ruined and warped the lives of three Dorris children before they were born, and the despair brought by it caused Dorris to take his own life. What a waste!!!

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LibraryThing member 4everreading

This book is the story of Michael Dorris' son, Adam, who has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Mr. Dorris conducted extensive research on this problem in the Native American population and details his findings in the book. It is very important information for our society, but the narrative gets a little

bogged down in statistics at times.

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LibraryThing member MEAWelsh

Excellent account of how the author and his family deals with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). Dorris also describes the prevalence of alcoholism and FAS on Indian reservations.

LibraryThing member homeschoolmimzi

I read this book many years ago for an assignment in a grad class. I remember being surprised by how much I learned from it and how much I liked it. Definitely going to re-read this one.

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