“My Dyslexia” by Philip Schultz

By Sarah Halzack,

MEMOIR

MY DYSLEXIA

By Philip Schultz Norton. 120 pp. $21.95

 

It would probably come as a major shock for any middle-aged adult to find out that he has a learning disorder. But what if that man was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, and the disorder was dyslexia, which fundamentally affects one’s ability to process language? That is precisely what happened to Philip Schultz, a writer whose self-worth and self-understanding were rocked by the relatively late-in-life discovery.

In his new memoir, “My Dyslexia,” Schultz shares what it was like to grow up as a member of what he calls the “dummy class” — the masses of children who were given up on or teased in an era when learning disorders were less understood and less frequently diagnosed. Perhaps what is most striking is his ability to explain to a non-dyslexic person what it feels like to read with the obstacles he faces.

“As I read, a kind of subtle bartering between uncertainty and hunger for knowledge goes on in my mind, in which I must conquer a feeling of hopelessness and anxiety,” he writes. “I’ve learned to read the way a runner learns to expect and find his second and third winds, the way an athlete pushes himself beyond where it is comfortable to go. I read word by word, sometimes congratulating myself on the completion of each sentence, each paragraph and chapter.”

The book is tightly written and spare, which mostly adds to its punch. But there is one key anecdote missing from Schultz’s story that would have made it more complete. The reader is told that the discovery of his son’s learning disorder led to the identification of Schultz’s own problem. But how? Were there visits to doctors or specialists? Was it a realization he slowly came around to, or one that struck him like lightning? Since the crux of the book is the difference between his self-perception before diagnosis and after, it’s an odd choice not to share details of how the pivotal shift actually happened.

— Sarah Halzack