Book Review: "Aidan's Way" by Sam Crane

Psychology of the Atypical Child, Georgia State University, Spring Semester 2023, Grade: A+

Part I - Summary

Adian’s Way is a masterfully written account of love, family, and disability. Written from the author, Sam Crane’s, point of view, the memoir recounts all the thoughts and feelings he wrestled with in navigating his young son’s severe disabilities.

Aidan Crane was born seemingly normal until he began having seizures on just his tenth day of life. Crane’s wife Maureen, a registered nurse, knew immediately that something was wrong with her son. After many tests and investigative scans of his body, it was determined that Aidan had been born with multiple malformations in his brain. Notably, a lack of a corpus callosum, demyelination, and polymicrogyria, which means that the folds of the cortex grew too small.

For kids with Aidan’s conditions, a significant portion of life is spent in doctor’s offices and hospitals. This was no different for the Crane family. Crane describes many harrowing interactions with medical settings, including times where their son almost died, and the struggle to preserve their second child, Margaret’s, innocence.

Throughout Crane’s reflection on his and his son’s experiences, he refers to a multitude of ancient Chinese philosophical writings. Crane, a professor of Asian studies and politics, is an expert on the topic, and finds many ways to relate these schools of thought to his personal circumstances. The title of the book, Aidan’s Way, is a reference to Lau Tzu’s idea of “Dao,” loosely translating to “way.” Through this philosophy, each individual creates their own ‘way’ of being, their own state of existence in the world. Aidan’s ‘way,’ though different than most, is just as poetic and valid as anyone else’s.

Part II - Reflection

Aidan’s Way was equally as beautiful as it was painful. I chose this book partially because of my personal connections to disability of this severity. In 2017 the daughter of very close family friends who I had grown up with, Olivia, was diagnosed with MLD (Metachromatic leukodystrophy), an extremely rare, degenerative genetic disorder that causes incapacitation of the central nervous system and brain. Almost six years later Olivia is considered an individual with severe disability, and lives a life very similar to Aidan Crane.

Throughout reading this book I found endless connections and parallels to Olivia and her family’s story, and even how Olivia’s diagnosis affected me. Those who are disconnected from disability have a kind of ignorance, never having to face existential questions about how moral it is to perform intensive treatments, or whether others might be better off without one person taking up so many resources.

These are questions Sam Crane grappled with, and ones I have found myself reflecting on as well. When you are ignorant of such intense disabilities, it is easy to adopt a view similar to Peter Singer, a Princeton ethics professor Crane challenged. Singer came under criticism for his argument that it was morally permissible, and even correct in some cases to kill a person with extreme disability. I would argue that many people share this feeling, but would never say it out loud. It is incredibly easy to look at someone who lacks something you have and declare that your life is therefore better. But if that person has never known anything different, why can they not be perfectly content?

My favorite discussion Crane brings up is the idea that disabled children like Aidan and Olivia have somehow less important lives than ‘normal’ people. Crane posits that in 100 years when our bodies are in the ground, will there be a marked difference of who died at what age, or who accomplished what? Crane, a college professor, writes and analyzes history and current events, but is that going to improve anyone else’s quality of life? Aidan however, inspired great change in his community, resulting in more funds for the whole town’s education, and even a new elementary school building, where the old building had been crumbling at its foundation. At the end of the day it seems that Aidan’s story and life went much further to improve the lives of thousands of individuals in Massachusetts. With the publication of this book, Aidan touched thousands, including myself. In this fact, his life and his way are more meaningful than most.