Adventures Among the X Challenged

As a result of a learning disability, Dakota struggled to get through her undergraduate years, but came through school with flying colors. But as she began her employment career, her troubles began. First she was assigned to a mentor named Valerie whose idea of mentoring was to come to the class ten minutes before class ended. Dakota's students were older than she and took advantage of the difference by harassing her and ridiculing her. She finally quit the teaching profession when the authorities confessed they couldn't keep the students from assaulting professors. At her next job, her boss was a paraplegic who ran a cent for independent living with a strong hand. She had all of the charm of an Ahab and because she was physically disabled, she felt superior to those whose disabilities were invisible. Like those writers who've used levity and iron to make serious points, Jill Nelson, Alice Randall, Sola Agusston and Adrienne Kennedy, Tennessee Reed uses her Brueghelian gufts for descriptions of major and minor characters. She's armed with a wit that imparts a black humor, and a craftsperson's sense of scene, to create one of the most remarkable novels to come along in years.…