| Book Reviews |
| Wonderful example, August 1, 2005 Reviewer: Dr. Kovács László I am an orthopedist in Budapest, Hungary. My wife is a neurosurgeon and we are parents of two boys, one of them has a disability. This great series, the McFadden Family Series opens with the book Stolen Shadows. In the center are two young medical professionals, who take in abandoned boys, many with serious disabilities. Dr. Lauren McFadden is a very well rounded figure. In addition to being devoted to her profession and patients she maintains a healthy marriage and finds the time to nourish and use her musical talent. She is a great inspiration for any doctor in today's rushed consumerist world. The other characters are also very interesting. Actually the major strength of this novel is the way the characters are written. Another very important part is the well researched medical situations. Ms. King portraits them accurately and in a way that is hardly seen on television or in novels. August 1, 2005 Reviewer: Dr. Kovács László |
| I first started to read the McFadden Family Series to help me prepare for an English language exam. I really enjoyed the books, especially the first and the third. There are lots of wonderful people in the books. They are good examples. My favourite character is Bryan McFadden. I am sure everyone reading these books can find one or more people they can identify with. The story line is very exciting. Life brings challenges to all of us. Some challenges are like the ones in the book. Some are very different. But everyone raising children can relate to some adventures of the McFadden family. Dr. Csaba Molnár, M.D. |
| As a frequent reader of medical thrillers and other medical setting novels I have had a lot of fun in the past picking them apart form the medical point of view. However, with the McFadden Trilogy there was no way for that. The author shows an accurate knowledge of physical therapy details and the medical situations are well researched. Kudos to Ms King for the detailed research! Dr. Jules Agbeko, M.D. |
| A Captivating Read Derek O'Brien "Céadsearc" (Hungary) A friend referred me to this novel, the first of the McFadden series, about two years ago. After building a great resistance towards the romanticised approach to disability issues, I thought it would be another brave cripple story. Being deaf and dealing with complications from brain tumours I never imagined I would find a book that depicted life with disabilities accurately and yet it was entertaining. The characters are captivating, their adventures are very real. Issues that are "normal" in life come up, showing that people with disabilities don't differ from those without. |
It is always exhilarating for a reader to follow a writer who goes forth boldly where no one has ever ventured before – and even more so when that writer knows how to create compelling characters and spin a good yarn. These are the most basic pleasures to be gleaned from reading Mary King’s trilogy, Stolen Shadows, Spiral Passage and Level Ground, but there are other benefits, as well. King describes her writing as disability advocacy, and it certainly is that. As she recounts, over three books, the trials, tribulations and triumphs of the ever-growing family McFadden of western Massachusetts, we learn – in detail that some readers, to be sure, may find excruciating – about the day-to-day life of people, and specifically male adolescents, with various disabilities. From catheters to commodes, it is all here, with all manner of useful facts embedded; who knew, for instance, that quadriplegics do not sweat below the neck, and therefore are in constant danger of potentially fatal overheating? Or that the vast majority of adolescents who suffer crippling spinal injuries are boys (presumably one of the chief reasons for the family’s composition in this series)? Fascinating stuff, but as King has shrewdly figured out, the average reader is more likely to sit still for an education in living with disabilities if there’s an absorbing storyline and likable characters attached to it. That is no problem in this trilogy, which begins with a (literal) bang and starts with, and centers on, Dr. Lauren McFadden and her husband, Bryan. They are an appealingly unconventional pairing: she’s a little older than he, and outranks him professionally (she’s an M.D. and he’s a physical therapist); indeed, he was once her intern. Furthermore, they are still crazy in love with each other after five years of marriage. They need to be, because a twist of fate allows them to pursue a dream (and allows King to pursue a story) that would be daunting to ordinary mortals: creating a family out of rejected, dejected boys with enormous emotional and physical needs. In Stolen Shadows, we meet the McFaddens and witness how they seize on an opportunity that is as unexpected as it is implausible (though it allows King to address the monumental issue of how expensive it is to care for even one child facing such challenges) and begin to build their family. It is all new to the reader at this point, and that makes the first book compulsively readable. Spiral Passage depicts the growth of the family to rather staggering size, and may be the most problematic of the three novels. After a while, every time a new young male character is introduced, you read on with dread, wondering exactly what kind of catastrophe is going to befall him; and despite King’s strenuous attempts at variety, a certain repetition does begin to set in. Fortunately, in Level Ground, she takes her plot to a logical progression, and the third book is not so much about the continued expansion of the family with new members as it is about exploring the developing relationships between and among the youthful parents, their no longer Lost Boys, and others from the world beyond their loving home. Along the way, quite a few things recur besides the details about day-to-day life with disabilities. There is a tremendous outpouring of tears, and why wouldn’t there be; this is inevitably a story of powerful emotions. And there is a lot of sex. King is notably unafraid to tackle this subject in many of its more controversial manifestations, from (above all) the sexual drives and desires of people with disabilities, to teenage sexuality, to same-sex attraction and passion, to (most radical, perhaps) quite a few hot scenes between husband and wife. If the prose gets purple sometimes (and it does), she nevertheless gets her point across well: sex and romance, passion and intimacy, love fully expressed, is not limited to those who are (temporarily) physically and psychically “whole.” Notwithstanding the author’s concerted efforts, you may find yourself a bit lost at time trying to distinguish among all the members of the McFaddens’ burgeoning brood. But as a group (and, by the conclusion of the trilogy, individually as well), you are unlikely to forget them. ***************************** – Lance Ringel’s book reviews appeared frequently in the Stamford (Conn.) Advocate and Greenwich Time when he served as arts and entertainment editor of those papers. He served as editor of the Weekend section of Taconic Newspapers when that chain won the New York Press Association award for best coverage of the arts in the state. |
| The Front Entrance |
| The McFadden Novel Series |
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