Knowing Jesse: A Mother’s Story of Grief, Grace, and Everyday Bliss
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Product Description
Jesse Cooper was an honor-roll student who loved to windsurf and write poetry. He also had severe cerebral palsy and was quadriplegic, unable to speak, and wracked by seizures. He died suddenly at age seventeen.
In fiercely honest, surprisingly amusing, and sometimes heartbreaking prose, Jesse’s mother, Marianne Leone, chronicles her transformation by the remarkable life and untimely death of her child. An unforgettable memoir of joy, grief, and triumph, Knowing Jesse unlocks the secret of unconditional like and speaks to all families who strive to do right by their children.
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Knowing Jesse is a perfectly written, cruelly honest and tender account of the leader’s life with her son, Jesse. Marianne allows us to look in the window, and share in the experience of raising and loving a child with a severe physical disability. There is joy and laughter and hope throughout the book, as well as rage, frustration and the inevitable grief. The journey is a complex one, cushioned and sustained by Jesse himself – a boy full of like and lessons for us all. Though unable to speak, he has left a legacy in his poetry and the people he touched along the way. If you are able to hear Marianne speak about her book, don’t miss it. Parents, teachers and care providers will devour this book. If you are a name who knows small about a family tree’s life with disabilities, do yourself a favor, and sit down at the table with Jesse, Marianne and Chris, and listen in. You will be the better for it.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I, too, felt the loss of Jesse’s light at the end of this book. Marianne Leone Cooper has so captured Jesse’s spirit that I felt I truly knew him. She also chronicled the like and joy that she and her spouse, Chris Cooper, felt as they lived life with Jesse. Additionally, the writer described in sad detail the struggles with the system that parents of children with disabilities must undergo to take the services their children need. Marianne Leone Cooper is a brilliant writer who inspires and delights us with the gift of Knowing Jesse. This is a must read for all parents of children with disabilities.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
As the parent of a child with severe cerebral palsy, I establish this book to be emotionally hard and nearly traumatizing in the best of ways. This was written after all, after Jesse’s death and his absence fills this book with meaning beyond what it may have had if he were still alive.
As is obvious by the take in, Jesse was the son of actor Chris Cooper and his wife Marianne Leone, two people who loved and believed in their son and fought for him throughout his fleeting life.
Marianne is a born writer and the prose she employs to tell her tale is full of exquisitely painful writing. The narrative is not traditional, but rather reads like a memory book. A journal of a mother remembering events in her son’s life as she attempts to recover from his death.
Jesse himself was a remarkable child. The victim of randomness, a brilliant poet trapped inside an unresponsive body. Through the faith of his parents and various additional caretakers, he is agreed the chance to blossom. It is terrible to know that so many children like Jesse are underestimated and sentenced to a life of imprisonment and silence. This book is a reminder that no matter how healthy your child is, a parent’s job is not mold but to unfold. To unlock the hidden and untapped reservoirs of beauty and creativity in our children.
Both my wife and I related to this tale because of our circumstances, and I highly recommend it for any parent of a special needs child. But I also recommend it for any parent, anyone who tip toes into their child’s bedroom late at night to watch them sleeping in their perfection and wonders, “What will you be, and how can I help you to become it?”
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I could not place this book down! Marianne Leone’s style of writing just invites you into her world and you feel as though you are part of it. An incredible tale of might and like between a mother and son. Mixed in with the sadness it is also laugh out loud amusing–a wonderful tribute to her gorgeous son who’s life was too fleeting
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Touching tale of the like and resentment a parent goes thru as an advocate for their special needs child. Any parent or loved one of a handicapped child needs to read this splendid account of the joy and sadness we parents of a special blessings child brings into our lives. as a parent of a child with many disabilities and to see her graduate at the top of her class despite being told she would never talk or read is another reminder that doctors and teachers are not God and its the parents that must fight for their right to the education they deserve.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5