Causing big trouble for the little people

IN THE LITTLE WORLD: A True Story of Dwarfs, Love and Trouble by John H Richardson (Abacus, pounds 12.99)

IN July 1997, I stood in the lobby of an Atlanta Hotel, a first time attendee at the Little People of America national convention. As an averagesize man, I was very aware of my physical difference from most of the hundreds of people around me.

Almost exclusively, they were people of short stature, restricted growth, little people, dwarfs, whichever term you prefer.

Perhaps for those few initial moments, I got some idea of what being short in an average-size world must be like.

John H Richardson was there too, maybe at the same moment, to write an article for Esquire magazine, and it is from that article that this book developed. The opening pages describe the lobby scene. It is clear from his descriptions of "the classic pushed-in dwarfy look", "jumbo-sized heads" and later "the arms of Mr Potato Head" (at least he had the decency to qualify that one with "God forgive me"), that Richardson and I view the world through very different eyes.

In The Little World details Richardson's time at the convention and his subsequent relationship with five people he met there - a young dwarf couple, Michael and Meredith; Andrea, a single middle- aged shortstatured lady; and Evelyn and Jocelyn, an averagesize mother and her daughter with achondroplasia, who had come to Atlanta from Australia seeking medical advice.

Each relationship is troubled in its own way.

Michael and Meredith ultimately feel exploited by their interaction with Richardson. Andrea confronts him again and again about his motives and seeks assurances that their discussions will not appear in the book.

Eventually, she acquiesces and they do. Most disturbing is the chronicle of the disintegration of Evelyn's marriage as Jocelyn undergoes prolonged surgical treatment in the US. This occupies much of the second half of the book.

We look on as Evelyn grows further and further from the other members of her family and develops relationships with people she has met in cyberspace.

The reader is left with an uncomfortable feeling of voyeurism.

Richardson sets out to avoid what he describes as "big hearts in little bodies" - to treat those he features in the book "just like grown up people who can take it". He tells a suspicious parent that he wants to write about "humanity and truth".

Admirable aims but aims which, on the evidence of this book, he seems not to have achieved.

He certainly cannot be accused of providing a falsely optimistic view of dwarfism or disability in general. We witness the angst of Michael and Meredith, yet we hear very little of the dwarf couples and families who do not suffer in this way. We follow Jocelyn through a harrowing series of surgical procedures, principally under the care of Dr Steven Kopits. (The descriptions of Kopits's thoughts and his work are made poignant by his recent death.) What we are never made fully aware of is how unusual these medical complications are for those of short stature.

A parent of a child with achondroplasia reading this book could find it unnecessarily worrying.

Much is made of the psychological effects of physical difference, yet little of the research describing psychosocial functioning in those of short stature is discussed.

We hear almost nothing of discrimination at work, in schools, by health insurance companies (a major issue in the US) or of the practical day-today problems of being of restricted growth.

Instead, Richardson takes us on a long, and at times disturbing, journey.

His characters are in many cases well drawn. He is open and frank about his own failings and certainly has not backed away from controversy. It would have been easy for him to decide not to follow up the Esquire article that drew much criticism from those featured in it. The question is whether he has really produced a "True Story of Dwarfs" or whether he has produced a story of a group of troubled people, some of whom just happen to be dwarfs.

Dr Michael Wright is a clinical geneticist at the International Centre for Life in Newcastle.

Copyright 2002
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