Review: An Unexpected Life

by Sara Mahmood

An Unexpected Life

by Debra Chwast

Every parent wants their children to grow up strong, healthy, and normal. When Debra Chwast’s son, Seth, was diagnosed with autism, she was devastated. She stayed in denial about her son’s condition for many years. She hoped for a cure; maybe if she kept taking him to therapy, his autism would go away. She never thought that, 20 years later, she’d be stressing out, trying to book exhibitions and ship paintings to museums for Seth.

Although raising Seth was difficult for Debra, An Unexpected Life doesn’t focus on these hardships. She mentions her problems every now and then, but the book isn’t a pity party: it’s a positive story about helping Seth develop as an artist.

When Seth was 18, a vocational counsellor told Debra that dry-mopping was her son’s best choice for a career, as autism severely narrows one’s choices. Seth has to be watched all the time. He also has many food allergies that he does not understand, so he cannot be left alone in the same room as a long list of everyday food. Despite all these barriers to Seth’s ability to have a “normal” life, Debra refused to have her son written off. When Seth was 20, she took him to a painting class at the Cleveland Museum of Art and discovered that despite what the counsellor had said, her son had a bright future ahead of him.

Since then, Seth has appeared on the Today Show, had his artwork exhibited in museums and galleries, and has created the cover art for a book about mental health. His success has proven to be inspirational to many people who know someone diagnosed with autism.

Although Seth’s thriving with artistic expression, he is conflicted by language – he cannot have a conversation. Ask him a series of questions and he may smile at you, but he probably won’t respond. Seth will walk up to strangers and try to talk to them – shooting questions at them (without waiting for a response) and asking for email addresses so he can tell them about his work. He’s usually ignored, but he doesn’t give up. One of Seth’s favourite sayings is “New friends are everywhere.” Despite the fact that many people don’t understand him or simply disregard him, he continues to look positively at mankind.

Although Seth struggles with words, he communicates with art. Even while I read An Unexpected Life on the subway, people sitting beside me couldn’t help but notice the colourful drawings and paintings decorating the pages of the book. In An Unexpected Life, Debra notes various occasions where people who have relatives diagnosed with autism that recognize Seth’s disorder right away. Debra would show them a t-shirt with one of Seth’s paintings and the people would rejoice over how his success and ability to make a life for himself. Seth’s story gives hope to families with children diagnosed with a disorder like autism that are scared of what the future may hold. 

An Unexpected Life encourages readers to never give up. Debra and Seth struggle daily and will never have a “normal” life, but they don’t let their hardships define them. They make the best of what life has offered them and keep fighting.