The Still Point of the Turning World by Emily Rapp

What a sad, somber, heartbreaking story. The author's son was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease which means that he stopped developing at six months old and gradually regressed until he passed away before he turned age three. She starts the book with the day of his diagnosis.

This is a different kind of memoir (and it's actually more of a long reflective meditation rather than memoir) than I've ever read because she seeks to find comfort and meaning in literature and weaves all sorts of literary references throughout the book. I actually wish that she wrote more about her son's decline and what it was like in terms of the practical ways she had to care for him. Her vagueness about the end of his life left me unsure about what it was like for her and her husband.

If you're looking for an uplifting and happy book, you are not going to find it here.