Saturday, September 21, 2013

The good, the bad, the ugly

Susan Nussbaum's novel Good Kings,Bad Kings is basically a story about teenagers. Teens who are alienated, funny and want independence. Except...these teenagers have a variety of mental and physical disabilities and live in a privately run state home for juveniles with disabilities. There are good people in the system like Joanne Madsen who is a clerk and disabled herself, and not so good, like the woman who trolls shelters for new patients. Since the institution is privately run for profit many abuses occur (the ugly).
The teens must depend on each other to navigate the system. Although it sounds depressing, it isn't. The author, herself in a wheelchair, wanted to write a novel that was funny, not sentimental and she succeeded. ML

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