The withering child

Told from a father's perspective, The Withering Child is the story of a young boy's profound reaction to the disruptive forces of change. John A. Gould's artful narrative of a domestic crisis aptly gauges the subjective undercurrents of contemporary family life. Indeed, parents who read it will confront facets of their own - and their children's - expectations and apprehensions. In August 1990, Gould, his wife, Jane, and their two children, five-and-a-half-year-old Gardner and sixteen-month-old Sam, left their home in Massachusetts for a yearlong stay in England. For the Goulds (he, a teacher and scholar, and she, an Episcopal priest) it was to have been a long-awaited, working sabbatical. Ten harrowing weeks later, they left England. In so short a time, Gardner had developed anorexia and had lost a third of his body weight. The Goulds came home, essentially, to save his life.^ Gardner had always been a "handful" - capable and caring, but often willful, inattentive, and overly energetic. When the Goulds departed for England, the child relinquished the familiar people, places, and things that had afforded stability and comfort. The losses overwhelmed him. Once in England, Gardner's