Susan NussbaumCritiques

Proponents of privatizing public services argue that, by managing operations like a private business, these services can be provided much more efficiently. So what is the natural outcome when residential/custodial care is outsourced to a corporation whose board demands a healthy profit, and profits are driven by keeping as many beds filled for as little cost as possible? The goal is certainly not to try to support families with disabled children, to keep them at home instead of in residential care. It’s not to prepare those children for living as independently as possible when they reach adulthood, becoming contributing members of society. Oh, and if that same company holds government contracts for residential psychiatric care? Perhaps there’s a profit motive for assigning psychiatric diagnoses to children with behavioral problems?

This was an interesting book with some interesting things to say. But it is grim reading, and I was outraged at the way the author chose to end it. I don’t expect or even want happy endings, especially in a book so determined to strive for realism. But there is no sense of resolution, no looking forward, no… anything. It just stops, like the author got tired of writing or the publisher refused to print more than 465 pages.

Audiobook, purchased via Audible. The performances by a cast of readers were the best part of this book. They breathed life into the characters as each told his or her own story. This is one good exception to my dislike for first person present tense. The writing style, in this case, fit the story being told perfectly.

Nussbaum succeeds at her goal here: to write a book about characters with disabilities, who have personalities beyond their disabilities, interact with each other and with characters who are able-bodied. The characters are fully fleshed out and interesting, realistic characters.

But this absolutely comes off as a political piece. It is certainly enjoyable in its own right, but it is impossible to read without thinking of it as a piece about disability-rights, criticizing institutions (which, I agree with in spirit, but also agree that there are nuances to the discussion not fully elucidated here.) and discussing discrimination, over-utilization of intelligence and personality testing and casting a cynical eye over seemingly all parties involved in providing care to those with disabilities.

Perhaps the best part of the book is that Nussbaum portrays even most of her villains as human, simply ignorant or over-worked or otherwise preoccupied. She does have a few truly irredeemable characters, but by and large, especially for a piece trying to make a statement, this is done well -- an invitation to dialogue.

Perhaps I am biased. This book was recommended by a disability rights activist that I'm sure knows people like those in this book. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that my friend knows Ms. Nussbaum. As a "temporarily able bodied" person, my interaction with differently abled people has been fairly limited. This book brought me into a world so different from my own. Or rather, it has expanded the view of the world I live in, to better include people that have too often been invisible to me.

Some of the violence and hardship in this book make it a rough read. It is an important read nonetheless. The story is complicated and compelling and the story telling is masterful. I highly recommended it.

These teens may seem to have the normal teen angst but, their lives are anything but "normal". These are teenagers institutionalized - some for physical reasons and some for mental. This is a novel that explores their friendships, relationships and what life is like for them inside the institution.

Astounding. Upsetting. At times I was moved to laughter, at others to tears. And I could not put this book down. It's about institutionalizing the disabled, it's about abuse, and it's about friends and family and finding out who you are and who you want to be.

TRIGGER WARNING: child abuse, rape, ableism.

The author--who is physically disabled herself--did a wonderful job of presenting so many different aspects of disability. There were some (in character) ableist slurs regarding the mentally disabled, so do watch out for that. The author also seemed to respect the different heritages of her characters; she writes in an interview how seriously she took it and how much she researched everything.

Give this book a try, but be so careful with yourself when you do because you will hurt.

Wow, this is an incredibly powerful novel about an institution serving disabled youth and narrated by a collection of youth and employees. Much of the novel is depressing, as the abuse and profit behind the endeavor slowly comes into focus. However, these youth also discover they do possess some power to impact their own fates. Both sad and empowering, I'd highly recommend this novel.

Various narrators. This follows the travails of several teens who live in ILL C, a Chicago institution for kids with disabilities, plus three ILL C staffers and a patient recruiter. Through their voices we meet characters whose disabilities do not render them hopeless or invisible, and those few adults who truly care about their well-being. The cast of readers do an outstanding job imbuing the characters with their assorted personalities. Particularly memorable portrayals are Jesse, Ricky the bus driver, and the lesbian staffer whose name I forget now. And while the readers did a great job with Mia and Michelle, there were many times their voices dipped to whisper and I had to rewind and crank the volume. Teens looking for raw stories in an urban setting will enjoy this one. Lib note: Mia graphically describes being raped, Ricky talks about sleeping with Joanna, cursing, frank talk...this holds its own with any adult novel but the characters give this teen appeal.

Really I should give it two stars, but the third is probably because this book is the most recent winner of the PEN/Bellwether prize for socially engaged fiction sponsored by Barbara Kingsolver. Since Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors, I felt like I had to like this book more than I did.

It is hard to be critical of a book that treats such a serious topic. The setting is a nursing home for disabled youth. The residents experience numerous types of abuse, neglect and inferior care, all in the name of profit. While the premise is good, the execution appears lacking. The residents' stories appeared at times contrived or stereotypical. Yes, the situation is tragic, but I did not find myself drawn to any of the characters.

Susan Nussbaum's Good Kings Bad Kings takes place in a nursing home for indigent teenagers with disabilities, most of whom belong to minority ethnic groups. Each chapter is narrated by one of a rotating cast of major characters; some are employees of the institution, and others are clients/inmates. All are victims of a corrupt bureaucratic "System" that rewards high-level executives for keeping costs down and profits up. The executives provide inadequate facilities and underpay the front-line employees, who in turn neglect or abuse the clients/inmates. All of the narrators, disabled and able-bodied alike, are frustrated by their lack of alternatives.

I found that the "rotating cast" structure sometimes got in the way of the storytelling, especially since the institutionalized youth expressed themselves in similar-sounding (and not always convincing) "street" dialect. Taken as a whole, the narrative reminded me of a multi-part investigative reporting series written by a journalist who is gunning for a Pulitzer Prize. Blatant injustice and cruelty abound, but those at the top can't see it, or don't care to do anything about it.

This is not an enjoyable book to read, but I am glad I read it.½

I got a plan to run away. I'm gonna go right before they're set to ship me out of here. I been figuring it out but there's still a few details that need a little work. I know how I'm gonna sneak out, that's easy, but I'm not sure where I'm gonna stay at. The plan has to be perfect so I don't end up in a place even worse than this place. - Teddy Dobbs, from Good Kings Bad Kings, page 37 -

Teddy Dobbs is only one character who speaks to the reader in Susan Nussbaum's novel about a group of teenagers living in an institution for juveniles with disabilities. There is also Yessenia Lopez who is still reeling from the loss of her tia Nene, and the tragic Mia Oviedo who is hiding a secret. Staff members also narrate this novel: Michelle Volkmann,a recruiter for the institution; the compassionate Joanne Madsen who is herself disabled, and the concerned Ricky Hernandez to name a few. Nussbaum alternates her characters' voices chapter by chapter, revealing a community bound by necessity and challenged to survive in a world where they have little to no control.

I requested this book from the Library Thing Early Reviewers program because I thought it would resonate with me. I have worked as a physical therapist consultant for adults and kids with developmental delays. I love my clients. I appreciate their spirit and courage, their ability to live in the moment, and their open personalities. I have seen some of the sadness as well - the individuals who have been raped, or institutionalized in facilities that are no more than holding pens for people unable to care for themselves. I chose to work for a company that provides consistently excellent care in a clean, family-oriented setting (a home, not an institution) and so many of my clients who came for bad environments are now enjoying life in a much more independent and caring setting.

That said, I found myself feeling so sad as I read this novel. I do think Nussbaum is doing a service to the disabled community who are still living in institutions and finding their lives completely controlled by outside forces - some which are destructive. But I really had a hard time getting through this novel. It was painful for me despite some humorous voices. I ached for these characters.

Those readers who enjoy literary fiction will appreciate the honesty of the prose, and the careful development of the characters. But it is also a heartbreaking read, one that found me taking many breaks just to regroup.½

“We are minor character's in someone else's story.”

The Illinois Learning and Life Skills Center, is located on the south side of Chicago. It is an institution for disabled juveniles. This tough, uncompromising story, takes place, mostly in between these walls, unfolding with both grit and tenderness. Each chapter, focuses on an individual; either one of the kids or one of the staff, detailing their daily struggles, small triumphs and chronic disappointments.
The thing I most enjoyed, in this novel, followed closely by the fine prose, was the unique perspective of the disabled, both adult and child, a glimpse into a world that is rarely shown in print or any other medium. Bravo Ms. Nussbaum!

Opens readers' eyes to the world that disabled have to navigate. Characters are richly written, funny, heartbreaking, and true.

I didn’t really understand what this book was about before I started it, and had expected a story set in a home for “juveniles with disabilities” to be darker than this ultimately is.

The author, who was the 2012 winner of Barbara Kingsolver’s PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, does a marvelous job of making her young characters come alive and ‘investable’ to the reader.
The only drawback is (what I thought to be) a weak ending.

Read this if: you want to better understand what it is like to live ‘disabled’, especially as a teenager in a care institution. 3½ stars½

This is a tough book to read because as Nussbaum indicates in her acknowledgements, she hopes she did justice to the issue in Illinois. So, although this is a novel, it presents a picture that is painful because it is so much more than just a story. How long will it take for things to change when they are so bad almost everywhere---no real answers and certainly not easy answers to any of this.

Added note---another reviewer said that she looked up Nussbaum's own life and a medical crisis in her own life showed where some of her dedication to this huge problem originates. Thank you to that reviewer.

This is a great book. I received this for LibraryThing early reviewers.

It is the story of teens with disability. It is a very fast read because once started you can't stop reading it. This is the kind of book I like -- great characters, a worthwhile story.

It is on the top of my most liked books of the year (last year? or 2014 -- both)

My local independent bookstore has heard so many favorable reviews they are recommending to all who come in.

A beautifully told tale, in alternating first-person, about the residents of a juvenile residential care facility (nursing home). We hear the sometimes sassy and spirited, sometimes vulnerable and pained voices of residents Yessenia, Mia, and Teddy; the narrative of employees Joanne, Ricky, and Jimmie, and the observations of clueless recruiter and corporate goody-goody Michelle. While I enjoyed Yessie's story the most, following Michelle as she slowly begins to perceive the injustices caused by her employers' greed-- and as her own complicity dawns on her-- was pretty satisfying. Good Kings Bad Kings is quietly devastating but also very hopeful. Everyone needs to read this book.

An interesting story with different from the standard characters for a YA novel. I enjoyed the multiple points of view but had a hard time keeping track of who was who for the first half of the book and had to keep paging back to figure it out. It probably took me longer to get into the story, for that reason. I think there were just too many characters without the narrative structure to help the reader make sense of them. But it was an enjoyable read, if I could let go of that.

Do you think that nursing homes are only for the elderly? Have you ever considered where physically and mentally disabled children and young adults whose parents can’t care for them or who are wards of the state live? I know I hadn’t, blithely assuming that these kids would, of course, live with their families, never considering that these families might not have the resources, physically or monetarily, or, frankly, for some families, the interest in caring for their children. But Susan Nussbaum’s PEN/ Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction award winning novel, Good Kings, Bad Kings, showed me how wrong I was. A number of disabled young people are abandoned in homes and are at the mercy of the often underpaid staff, the integrity of the private companies that run the homes for profit, and the greater community that serves the homes and the interests of the children living there.

Told by seven different characters, three teenagers living at ILLC (Illinois Learning and Life Skills Center), three staff members, and a woman paid to fill the beds at the home, the novel is eye-opening and impressive. Each of the characters is very different as they narrate their lives and interactions in the home. Yessenia has been sent to ILLC from Juvie after she beat another girl at school with the footrest of her wheelchair. She is fierce and quick to flame up in a temper but she’s also funny and intelligent and still grieving the loss of her beloved Tia Nene, the last person to love and care for her. Mia is pretty, sweet, and quiet and she and her boyfriend Teddy are inseparable until her vulnerability and dependence expose her to evil. Teddy is endearing and he wants nothing more than to get out of ILLC, live in his own apartment, and marry Mia. Joanne, a newly hired data entry clerk at the home, is disabled herself and she is appalled and astounded by the way in which the home is run, cutting corners and costs, leaving these children without the services they need and no one to advocate for them. Michelle is a rising star in sales at the private company that runs ILLC but through her closer contact in the home itself, she becomes progressively more disillusioned by what she sees even as she allows her boss and his shiny, rich life to escape her censure. Ricky is a young Latino man who both drives a bus transporting the kids and works as an aide in the home and he is gifted to see these teenagers as just plain kids who often don’t deserve the punishments dealt them. And finally, Jimmie is another aide at the home who has been homeless and dependent on others herself and who develops a deep bond with Yessenia because of their common experiences and their many shared personality traits.

There’s terrible abuse, greed, ignorance, and tragedy in these pages but there’s also love, caring, kindness, and empowerment. Each of the seven characters is very different, their voices are unique and believable, and the insight into their thoughts is sympathetically and realistically done. The lives that some of these kids lead will break your heart but their resilience in the face of it all is amazing. And in the end, they are just normal kids, no matter what their IQs are or whether they move about in wheelchairs, or are struggling to overcome a history of abuse. As all of the characters interact, a more complete picture of life in the home emerges, the difference among the attitudes and actions of staff members, how the kids see the rules and restrictions, and how they each interact with each other, teen to teen, teen to staff, and staff to staff. Nussbaum has peeled back the veneer and shown the horrific and the tender and although it is clear that places like ILLC and their ilk are not the answer, the story shows that there are no easy answers, no one size fits all solutions for such a diverse population. Well written and engaging, this is a wonderful novel, one that is hard to put down once you’ve met the wide range of personalities and heard their backstories within these pages.

I was fortunate to get this book through the Early Reviewer program and I am so glad that I did. I had not heard of it until seeing it on the ER list, and I may have missed it if not for LT. Now I want to recommend it to everyone I know, particularly parents, teachers, nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers, politicians, and every teenager in America.
I read it pretty quickly and was stuck in bed this morning finishing it, crying into my pillow. But, while the topic is on the heavy side, there is also laughter and plenty of heart-warming moments, enough at least to believe that there is a light in the mysterious darkness of the private institutional systems which exist in our culture.
Susan Nussbaum is also a playwright who is used to creating dialogue, so she wrote seven narrators with distinct stories and points of view in the system. Three narrators are teens who are disabled and wheelchair-bound. They are a lot like typical YA teens who are dealing with puberty, friendships and sexuality, family relationships, and living in an adult-controlled world. It's important to remember that the life they are living is their norm. While they relate what happens to them, they are frank, funny, naive, irrational, insightful, depressing and inspiring, all at the same time, just like many teens you may know. In my opinion, this is one of the gifts of the book: a simple reminder that these kids are, in most ways, just typical kids, and that kids are people, too.
Nussbaum has the particular gift of insight into these characters' lives that enables her to give her readers one of the most realistic, open and enlightening books about disabled people, institutionalization, and a shameful fact of American culture, which I have ever had the privilege to read. She was awarded the Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction by PEN America, which was well-deserved. I hope this book is brought to teens as well as adults; though it is not classified as YA, it belongs in schools. Adults and teens could easily read this book together and I plan to pass it to my son, then a teacher-friend I know. Hopefully many socially engaged readers will pass it on to others (especially those who are not-so-engaged) and we can really start a conversation about the realities this fictional book relates.

I enjoyed this book. The voices of the individual characters rang true, the characters, while fairly numerous, were well-developed. I found myself caring even about minor characters. It's good to have a voice out there telling a story about the disabled. I haven't been actively searching for anything in that vein, but I feel like there's not a lot of great work out there like that - of telling a story about teens or pre-teens with that type of challenge. Only other one that comes to mind immediately is The Acorn People and I read that in maybe 7th grade...so it's high time for an update.½

Good Kings Bad Kings provides an interesting perspective on what it is like to live in an institution for disabled children. Actually, I should say the book provides perspectives plural since Nussbaum has different characters take turns telling the story. By turns, we hear from three disabled teenagers who are institutionalized; an employee at the facility; a physically disabled adult who works in data entry; and a recruiter for similar institutions. Although I learned more about the challenges that people with disabilities face, I have to agree with the reviewer below who said that each of the characters sounded nearly the same. I am giving this book three stars - the concept is interesting but the book would benefit from stronger character development.

Good Kings Bad Kings: A Novel was fascinating on many levels. I thoroughly enjoyed reading a fictional account of young people faced with the kind of challenges that the young people I worked with for more than twenty years faced. I got their struggles with bureaucracy and their growing empowerment to change the circumstances which they faced. I searched for information about this author who brought so much authenticity to her writing and found a compelling story. Susan Nussbaum was in an accident in her mid-twenties which left her severely disabled. She became an activist in the 1960s, long before ADA laws were passed. As she was coming to grips with her changed life she made a concentrated study of how the disabled are treated as characters in novels, plays, and movies. She came to the conclusion that they were most often simply foils for the main characters; someone to be cared for, pitied, or victimized, therefore making heroes or villains out of the main characters. She set out to change the culture as a playwright and now a novelist. There is much to think about in her debut novel and perhaps it will inspire a new generation of activists. There is still so much to be done in the field of rights for the disabled.

Received as participant of Library Thing's Early Reviewer program.

Good Kings, Bad Kings is aptly titled as it reminded me of a game of chess. In this novel, the pieces have been meticulously laid out—the advocate, the abuser, the scammer, the victim, the lesbian, the bishop, the pawn—and all the moves are predetermined, characters are not allowed to make their own decisions. It's set in a home for adolescents with disabilities. All these elements together make the novel a bit too much like an after-school special for my taste.

I liked the author's choice of using a first-person, rotating point of view. I'm a fan of multiple povs in a work. Unfortunately, it wasn't done all that well here. Each characters sounds nearly the same. No matter their background, they spoke within the same spectrum of street-talking, no-nonsense, WhachootalkinboutWillis speech.

And there was this thing with statements being questions that I didn't understand?

Good Kings, Bad Kings is well-intentioned. The author's passion for the subject and her concern for youths with disabilities is evident. Therefore, I'd recommend the novel to those looking for a feel-good, movie-of-the-week experience. Fans of simple YA will probably enjoy it too. On a bad day, this is the sort of novel I'd probably give two stars, but I've had a good day, so there it is.

GOOD KINGS BAD KINGS by Susan Nussbaum shines a light on the lives of youth who have been placed in an institution for kids with disabilities. Nussbaum shares their stories through the voices of seven different characters--each of them a resident or employee of the Illinois Learning and Life Skills Center.

There is so much to love about this book. Nussbaum's skill with writing dialogue and creating characters is incredible, and telling the story through multiple points of view works beautifully. GOOD KINGS BAD KINGS made me think, it made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me sad to leave its characters when I was done. It was perfect.

I'll conclude by saying that GOOD KINGS BAD KINGS is definitely my favorite book of 2013. Many many thanks to the Librarything Early Reviewers program for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

This book gives the reader insight into a world rarely visited; a world well known to the author. It is the world of the disabled. In particular, it is the world of the institutionalized where residents are young and have little to no say in their own lives. Everything is determined for them including when they rise, what they eat, when they shower, etc. They try to navigate this world with humor, friendships, and even romance but are often at the mercy of neglectful, even abusive caregivers. The author reveals the story through the eyes of several different characters, all of whom are complex and interesting. The characters are revealed to have strength, anger, frustration, and humor. Their is no self-pity here, but there are also no Pollyannas. These are real people with real emotions and real lives. This book affects the reader’s view of the ‘disabled’ and has the reader cheering when these residents take a stand. The author is unflinching in her writing. The language is coarse and some of the story, like the abuse, is very hard to read. However, this book needed to be written and it needs to be read. Social injustice like that portrayed here should never go unaddressed. What I liked most about this book was the fact that I often forgot that the characters were disabled because in their thoughts and actions they were not defined by their disabilities. Able-bodied people often neglect to see past disabilities to the person underneath. This book is an eye-opener.

Quotes:

“Dissatisfaction with my work makes me feel more employed” (p. 13).
“Once you laugh with a person? That person is your friend. You can’t help it” (p. 34).
“Not that invisibility is hard to achieve when you’re a crip. We’re minor characters in someone else’s story” (p. 104).

In accordance with FTC guidelines, please note that I received a free copy of this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers in exchange for an honest review.