DMR
a novel by Daniel Trask
ISBN: 978-0-9759515-1-3
List Price $15.95
Advance Praise
"DMR tells a story about one man's journey into the world of mental institutions for the severely disabled, but it is mostly a novel of human dignity, with all of its frustrations, joys, heartbreaks, and hilarity. . . . Trask's novel strips away our pretensions and shows us the beauty of our imperfections."
– Harry Bruinius, author of Better for All The World
"At times funny, at times earthy, the novel suggests that ability and disability may intertwine among care-receivers and caregivers. . . I recommend it highly."
– James W. Trent Jr., author of Inventing the Feeble Mind
"If you're looking for Oliver Sachs or even Mark Haddon, this isn't it. But Trask's DMR stands tall in a rich library of factotum literature, from Bartleby the Scrivener to Down and Out in Paris and London to Richard Yancey's recent memoir, Confessions of a Tax Collector.
– JMWW
Book Description
Told in the first person, DMR tells the story of a recent college graduate’s first six months in the real world, working as a direct caregiver within the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation.
During the six month period, John works in two group homes, both composed of four people, or as they are referred to in the department, “Individuals.”
John’s duties include helping the individuals with bathing, dressing, medication, eating, and recreational excursions (although he devotes very little time to this last activity).
Confronted with the horrific pasts and current conditions of the individuals, John is forced to learn some terrible things about the world we’ve made, things he would’ve preferred to have never known.
When John encounters an incident of sexual abuse perpetrated against an individual by one of his fellow direct caregivers, he realizes he has a choice to make—a choice of whether to respond, a choice of whether to change his own thinking and prejudices, a choice of whether what he has stumbled upon is really abuse at all.a
Daniel Trask was born in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1982. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in biology from UMass Amherst in 2006, Daniel worked for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation for six months.
He currently resides in Brockton where he works as a security guard, farmhand, and contracted copy editor. DMR is his second published novel.
Other Stuff:
Pubishing Genius (Daniel Trask interview of novelist David Daniel, author of Six Off 66, a new collection of short stories)
Outpost Project, Brockton, MA
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