In the New York Times, Polly Morrice reviews Karl Taro Greenfeld’s memoir about growing up in the shadow of a brother with autism.

She says “Boy Alone” allows Greenfeld to “exhume some festering emotions” about the intense media attention lavished on his younger brother Noah, who was the subject of several popular books written by their father in the 1970’s.

Karl vividly shows how his parents’ focus on Noah, and Noah’s profound autism, left him the “boy alone” of the book’s title …

The book’s emphasis … stays squarely on what might be called the brotherhood problem: can you love, and someday care for, a sibling who will never return your affection? The answer may not reassure the parents of the Noahs of the world, who form an obvious audience for “Boy Alone.” But it probably won’t surprise them, either.

(New York Times photo)

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