The Virtue of Giving Up

Growing up Blind and Autistic

This is the story of Judith Dent, a girl growing up in the middle of the last century, completely blind as well as autistic, at a time when few people had even heard of autism. Judy, in her own words, was a child who could lie on the floor and scream until she turned blue from the sheer desperation of realizing she was different, not only from sighted children, but from other blind children. Her familyincluding a mother suffering from paranoid schizophreniawas unequipped and overwhelmed. Schools had no idea how to deal with her. How is it possible that Judith survived her early years, multiple suicide attempts and hospitalizations, finally achieving successas a woman and wife living in her own home and as a PhD graduate? She lacked sight, but she brought to her writings here an extraordinary eye and memory for detail that make it almost possible for the reader to experience her world and understand how she did it.