Book Review: Our Father Who Art In an Iron Lung

Reviewed by Andrea Marks-Joseph

The emotional legacy of an extraordinary father, who lovingly raised his children and thrived in community for decades —all from inside an iron lung

Rushed to the hospital with “the worst kind” of polio in 1955, Bruce Dodd’s world changed in an instant. They put him inside an iron lung to help him breathe.

Inside the iron long installed at their home, Bruce could only speak on a machine-induced exhale, his young children becoming intimately familiar with his bedpan and urinal, yet the dedicated dad had the insight and fierce love for his family to see past any potential fears of being a burden or having a life frozen in place: “from his rocking bed, [he] ran the household. He made the grocery lists, planned the meals, helped with our homework, and was the disciplinarian.” Though the iron lung was life-saving, it was also isolating; ultimately Bruce “remained in that iron lung until he died in 1976.”

Our Father Who Art in an Iron Lung author Douglas Dodd is Bruce’s son, who was informed that he was the man of the house when he was six years old. Douglas took on the emotional and physical labor immediately, using his tiny hands for home repairs since his father could no longer take on those tasks. These complicated years create chaotic, entangled childhood memories which Douglas unpacks with his siblings in this memoir. The resulting story explores generations of childhood neglect in compassionate context, with an overall sense of awe at Bruce Dodd’s embodiment of love, even when his body could not breathe on its own.

“He was a friend to anyone who needed one, and he was always there.” Bruce Dodd redefined the concept of being always there for someone. He had an openhearted approach to welcoming visitors who came to see him. His willingness to offer comfort, laughter, advice, or quiet company challenges all of us to consider how we treat those around us. It’s impossible to read about Bruce and not feel inspired to create a lasting impression of love like he did. The storylines surrounding Bruce Dodd are life-affirming, woven with threads of hope and humanity, filling us with an unshakeable certainty that disabled people are valued members of society.

Douglas’s friend shares a remarkable childhood memory of Bruce in the iron lung, “in that tin can with just his head sticking out. It’s easy to imagine that such a sight would terrify a young boy, aged about eight years, but my emotional memory holds no such experience. Instead, I always found this man’s presence to be inviting, calming, and welcoming.”

This memoir dives into the day-to-day and long-lasting trauma in each of his siblings’ caretaking roles. As children, the Dodd kids’ school attendance depended on the level of care their father needed at the time. As adults, they felt guilty for not visiting more near the end of his life. In between, they were recklessly driving their father to the hospital where they were convinced he was about to die, if not already dead. Our Father Who Art in an Iron Lung unpacks this, first from the perspective of children forced to learn adult responsibilities, and later, from those same children, now grown-up, trying to ascertain how much damage their childhoods left on them.

The author pulls us in early with emotional connection to Bruce, making the reader want to spend all of our time with this fascinating father. The momentum is lost a bit when we are taken on adventures with Doug, into the mountains and into his dating life. We want desperately to be with his father, even if we understand why Doug doesn’t. After Bruce dies, Doug takes us into his post-divorce dating life and brings us along for the drinking and drug addiction that continues right up until his daughter Eliza’s birth, the day on which they learn she has Down syndrome. Douglas adores and unequivocally supports his daughter and has done so throughout her life, which is touching, but some language and perspective leans too heavily into sentimentalized disability story territory. The book also makes mention of the burden of other families who are raising children less independent than Eliza.

Of course, this doesn’t away from the thought-provoking impact of Bruce’s life, nor the multilayered effects on Doug and his siblings, so I would still highly recommend this book.

This memoir proves that people disabled by illness enrich their neighborhoods and families even if they are paralyzed and need round-the-clock care. A reflection on parenting both good and bad, Our Father Who Art in an Iron Lung is a guide to the profound impact of a good father and the unimaginable ripple effects of his love. When Douglas Dodd asked his siblings about what haunts them, his poet sister Patty mentioned that she often thinks about “what made our father’s life meaningful, and what can make anybody’s life meaningful.” This book is evidence that Bruce Dodd found meaning in making the people around him feel listened to and loved.

From his iron lung, Bruce Dodd gave meaning to generations of neighborhoods, of hospital staff and patients, of communities, and of family friends. His life was extraordinary because he treated his paralysis as ordinary. But Our Father Who Art in an Iron Lung shows us that it was a family effort to keep him and their household going. It cost each and every one of them so much, and every day they made the same choice. Sometimes imperfectly, some days more emotionally than others, but they were all so young, in an unimaginable situation, and they always moved with love.

Our Father Who Art in an Iron Lung is an antidote to a political climate that dismisses disabled people based on physical and mental capabilities rather than noticing the strength of our character, the love of our families, and the possibilities within us not yet dreamed up. In an era when disability cases are rising, post-viral infection syndromes among them, governments are turning treatment for debilitating illness into a cost-based analysis life-or-death decision, I cannot think of a more important perspective, a more encouraging story, and a more thought-provoking, urgent read than this one.

This is a must-read for disabled people, their communities, and anyone interested in learning about a father’s breathtaking determination to make his family and community feel loved.

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