Strange Beauty: A Portrait of My Son is Eliza Factor’s memoir of her experience as a mother to non-verbal son Felix, who was born with multiple disabilities, including cerebral palsy and autism. Factor describes for readers her pregnancy and the first few blissful months with Felix before the awareness that something was not as it should be. Then comes the slow realization, after many months of grueling and disheartening testing, that their son’s life, and their own, will not be at all like she had imagined.
This intimate, no-holds-barred memoir is full of both infectious laughter and intense physical conflict. It is the story of two little girls growing up in the shadow of their charming and fitful brother. And it is the story of a mother and writer imagining the world through the eyes of her son. Ultimately, it is Felix and his sisters that inspire Eliza to found Extreme Kids, a nonprofit community center that connects with children with disabilities through the arts and play.
Eliza shares how she and so many other mothers like her face adversity with grit and determination. Strange Beauty will forever change how we view those with physical challenges – and the families that love them.
ABOUT ELIZA FACTOR
Eliza Factor is the founder and President of the Board of Extreme Kids & Crew, a nonprofit community center that connects families with children with disabilities through the arts, music and play in Brooklyn. She was named New Yorker of the Week by NY1 in 2012 for creating the city’s first drop in sensory playspace for children with disabilities.
