A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage

The other story, the more universal story, is the haunting account of the symbiosis between mother and child, which grows particularly intense when a child feels pain from which his mother cannot shield him. Kephart's fears that her own maternal failings are somehow implicated in Jeremy's problem stand out as the emotional core of this memoir. Her faith in her son, perseverance, and eventual acceptance of herself play as important a role in his healing process as any course of therapy--and her unflinching descriptions of her own healing are what make A Slant of Sun such a stunning debut. --Patrizia DiLucchio

Product Description
Named a Best Book of the Year by Salon magazine and The Philadelphia Inquirer, A Slant of Sun was praised for its incandescent prose about the experience of loving a child who brings tremendous frustration and incalculable rewards and for its extraordinary resonance. Like Operating Instructions and The Liars' Club, A Slant of Sun is a contemporary classic.

Nearly one in five children grow up facing a developmental or behavioral challenge, and like them, Beth Kephart's son, Jeremy, showed early signs of being different: language eluded him, he preferred playing alone to an afternoon on the jungle gym. Doctors diagnosed Jeremy with a mild form of autism called Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. A Slant of Sun is a passionate memoir about how Kephart, guided by the twin tools of intuition and imagination, helped lead her son toward wholeness. Pulsing with the questions, "Is normal possible? Definable?" A Slant of Sun speaks to everyone not just parents of the redemptive power of love.

Diagnosed at age two with pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, Jeremy had obsessions and rituals and fears and no language to express his need for them. He loved cars and arranging them in precise, unvarying patterns. He was terrified of strangers, of any disruption in his day. The picture on the cover of the book is of Jeremy, alone and facing the world from his front porch, wearing the too-big green hat that for a time was his equivalent of Dorothy's ruby slippers, a bit of protection, a hedged bet against a world that wanted him to be like other kids. And a badge, too, that said, "I'm not like other kids. I hope I find my way, but it will be my way."

In fact, that's how it was. Today, he is on the verge of third grade, a move forward that, like all new things, has him a little nervous. "I know," he confides to his mother, "that I'm not good at transitions." He agreed to having a bunch of strangers in his house for a party in honor of the publication of the book for which he was the inspiration and the hero as long as he could leave and play soccer in the backyard when he felt like it. He not only held his own, he held forth.

I know because I was there. I met Kephart through her bread and butter work as a freelance business writer. I met Jeremy when I learned that his diagnosis was the same as the one pinned on my sister's child, who is three years younger than Jeremy and who, like Jeremy, is gifted in many ways and has eyes you could drown in. I hoped, like everyone who loves a child and sees him suffering, for a prescription. That is not what I found, either in knowing Jeremy or in reading the book about him. I found, as another reviewer has noted, "an extended poem" about the healing power of love. That, ultimately, is what makes this book worth reading.

Jeremy's extraordinary progress through his disorder is, implacably, his story and his alone. The disorder is too broad for it to be otherwise. Kephart - though she knows the science of PDDNOS and autism well enough to be asked to lecture at Johns Hopkins - is as bewildered as anyone. She writes, "It seems to me that the stronger Jeremy grows, the more confounding becomes the incipient question: Just what has happened here? Five years ago we saw our child disappearing - a rapid descent into silence. We met with doctors. We were given terminology. The terminology was a dark room, a dead end....Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified is a label extended to tens of thousands of children....It's an active search on the Internet. But it remains, in my mind, nothing more than a cipher, a way of saying, "We are not quite sure what's wrong."

What is universal, and right, in "Slant" and what Kephart expresses with honesty and exquisite language is the maddening collaboration of heartbreak, joy, rage, and simple sweetness that defines love -- whether you're a small boy demanding that the world take you green hat and all or a mother faced with diagnoses, haunted by imagined inadequacies, exhausted with daily and alternating frustration and progress, cognizant of prices to be paid if this road is taken over that road, and utterly charmed, still, by the hat. "On all the [hat] trees, on all the branches, among all those dozens of leaves, there could not be a more controversial choice," she writes.

"A Slant of Sun" is the real deal. It's a compelling story, compellingly told. It will hold up to the light.


A Slant of Sun   January 29, 2000
Joanne Lang (Baltimore, MD)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

A Slant of Sun, is the beautifully written story of one boy's triumph over a diagnosis of "pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified". Authored by his mother, Beth Kephart, we are taken on a journey through the heartaches, frustrations and joys of their relationship to each other and to the world. Ms. Kephart eloquently brings to our awareness the fact that each child is unique and that each parent has the opportunity to alter the course of a life by his or her willingness to challenge conventional thinking. Through the author's determination and love for her son and by Jeremy's strength, she guides and supports him in his courageous struggle. Ms. Kephart has the unique ability to bare her soul while maintaining the book's focus on her son and his day-by-day victories. For any one who has ever loved a child, A Slant of Sun promises to engross you with its depth, honesty and bravery.


More than a vigilant parent's story, brilliantly written!   October 11, 1999
Maureen Barr (Pasadena, CA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage By Beth Kephart, May 1998, W.W. Norton & Company; 249pp

As each of us have become parents, we have watched in awe the transformation of a swollen embodiment of hope into a human being who personifies our genetic material. Eternally compelling, we behold, we examine, we are astonished. For most parents, the gift of watching a child grow is truly a profound experience; but nothing is more heart wrenching than to watch a child grow with difficulty. Beth Kephart takes us into that vigilant world of a parent with a child who diverges from the path of normal development in her outstanding book, A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage. Yet, this particular book is so much more than a story about loving parents who diligently and successfully maneuver their gifted, mildly autistic child through the maze of denial, disillusionment, doctors and diagnoses. The fact is, this book is a must read because of Kephart's incredible style of writing words that fit together like a correctly completed rubric's cube. Kephart's ability to detail the ordinary moments of life transform them into the extraordinary. Her lyrical prose is sumptuous. Her vivid word combinations always satisfy. I recommend that you pick up a copy of Beth Kephart's book, find a warm slant of sun to read by, and enjoy!


a beautiful, engrossing book   August 10, 2000
Shannon Smithey
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Beth Kephart writes very well. I was totally hooked on this book after reading only a few pages. She is both a fierce advocate for her son and an interesting analyst of his difficulties. She takes us through her own journey and that of her son, from the first suspicions that something is wrong, through the struggle for a diagnosis, through the therapy and her realization that sometimes she ought to trust her instincts about her son more than the opinions of the experts. Though my own child does not suffer from any of Jeremy's problems, I gained considerable insight about parenting from this book.

You are likely to find this story fascinating whether you have any children or not.


Beautifully written, poignantly honest   December 22, 1999
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

As one who appreciates beautiful writing and as the mother of a son with PDD, I absolutely loved this book. There were many moments I recognized from my own experience in the roller coaster-like highs and lows Ms. Kephart experienced, the sterile and absolute reports from the medical community, and, worst of all, the rejection of her child. The only additional experience I've had that she didn't report is the blame that others would like to lay at the feet of the parents of such a child. Like Jeremy, my son has made great progress and is a high school honor student at our local public high school. While he doesn't spend time with friends, he's gained enough social confidence to enjoy social functions.

I'm glad that this book is drawing an audience beyond those with an interest in autism-like disorders, however, if you finish the book and don't question the way we as a society define "normal," then you've missed the point of the book.