Stuck in Neutral

Terry Trueman's Stuck in Neutral is an immensely powerful book packed into less than 120 pages.  Shawn McDaniel's is a teen-age boy who has cerebral palsy.   With an IQ estimated at 1.2 (equivalent to a mental age of 3-4 months), Shawn has been called a "vegetable" or "retard".  But, what nobody knows is that inside himself, Shawn is a genius. 

Shawn remembers everything he has ever heard or seen since he was 3 or 4 years old.  He learned to read because his older sister used to play teacher.  Shawn was the student.  But, because he has no muscle control whatsoever, he cannot communicate at all.  He cannot voluntarily blink or grunt.  He blames himself for his father's fame and his parent's divorce.  His father is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet; the subject of the winning poem - Shawn. 

The current topic of Sydney's (Shawn's father) writing is the story of Earl Detraux, a man who murdered his two year old son.  Earl killed his boy, Colin, because he, like Shawn, would only live a life in misery and suffering.  And, now Shawn, fears that he may suffer the same fate as little Colin. 

Trueman's story becomes even more powerful when you read the afterword.  His son Sheehan has cerebral palsy, just like Shawn.  As a parent I know that there is no job more challenging and I live for the smiles, the hugs and cuddles I receive as payment from my beautiful daughter.   I can only imagine raising a child like Shawn or Sheehan.  The rewards would be few and far between.  Stuck in Neutral is a compelling story of the "what ifs".