RANGE OF MOTION

The bounds of brotherhood and familial love are tested as an ordinary Ohio family grapples with the day-to-day realities of raising a child with cerebral palsy in Trapp’s novel.

As twins, there was never a time when Michael Mitchell couldn’t understand what his brother, Sal, was trying to communicate: “It was always. It was in the womb.” Sal was born with cerebral palsy, following a brain bleed, and never had a vocabulary consisting of more than eight words. He and his sibling have always shared a secret language that only they can understand. This fact puts enormous stress on Michael to be his brother’s keeper; still, he’s more than up to the task, despite having his own personal difficulties to navigate. The challenges are hard on the entire family, and Trapp is especially good at conveying the conflicting pain and frustration that each member experiences as they all struggle to do the best that they possibly can. Their mother, Hannah, and father, Gabe, find their marriage strained to the point of divorce as each searches their souls for the strength to carry on as a family. The author balances the profundity of his story with a comic tone throughout that some readers might find grating—until they consider what an absence of glibness might be like in the family’s darkest moments: “Still they waited for Sal to steady, to stand, for his moans to make sense. Say: No, I can’t do that yet. Or ever. No more questions. Let’s play airplane. This is your captain speaking.” The family’s pain—as well as their small triumphs—are palpable as the years pass, and the twins must face the possibility of separation as they approach their 18th birthday. This ultimately plays out in a riveting and dramatic series of events. Some readers may struggle to keep smiling along with the stalwart Sal and his devoted loved ones, but they’ll never stop feeling for the characters that Trapp has created.

A resonant and indelible family saga.