Spelling Love with an X: A Mother, a Son, and the Gene That Binds Them

A memoir of raising a child with a genetic disorder

When her son, J.P., was first diagnosed with fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of mental retardation, Clare Dunsford discovered that she and three of her four siblings carried the fragile X premutation and had therefore passed on the full mutation to J.P. and several of his cousins. An English professor by training, Dunsford draws on poetry to explore her new identity as a “mutant” and reflect on her life with J.P., a colorful young man with great verbal dexterity and a lovable cheeky streak. Brimming with warmth, Spelling Love with an X shares the disarming insights of a compassionate scholar on motherhood, literature, and genetic inheritance.

“A touching and poignant literary memoir . . . Through vivid descriptions of her relationship with J.P., readers can glimpse the parental highs and lows of life with a child who has developmental delays.” —Lisa M. Jordan, Library Journal

“Clare Dunsford navigates the X that has mapped her own and her son’s paths with humor, honesty, and clear-sighted intelligence—and in prose that sings.” —Elizabeth Graver, author of The Honey Thief and Awake

“Dunsford does much more than inform us concerning a disorder we know too little about. Through a prose both lucid and beautiful, she is able to communicate the strangeness, even the poetry, of fragile X.” —Clara Claiborne Park, author of The Siege and Exiting Nirvana