Rachel in The World is the sec­ond of two mem­oirs by Jane Bern­stein on rais­ing a child with severe men­tal and phys­i­cal dis­abil­i­ties. Bernstein’s first book, Lov­ing Rachel, end­ed just as Rachel was enter­ing pre-school and her fam­i­ly was buoyed by the hope that Rachel would be ​“high func­tion­ing.” This sec­ond mem­oir is the sto­ry of the love that per­sists when hopes are dashed and loy­al­ty is chal­lenged. Rachel is an adorable child with per­va­sive cog­ni­tive dis­abil­i­ties and she quick­ly becomes an obsti­nate young woman in search of an inde­pen­dence she can­not sus­tain on her own. Rachel in the World traces Rachel’s bid for this inde­pen­dence and the lengths to which her devot­ed moth­er goes in try­ing to offer her some mea­sure of free­dom. Bern­stein is fear­less in exam­in­ing her own needs and short­com­ings as a moth­er and these rev­e­la­tions ulti­mate­ly high­light the admirable depths of her love and com­mit­ment. The ques­tions Bern­stein rais­es about moth­er­ing are worth ask­ing in any cir­cum­stance. In Bernstein’s fear­less hands her strug­gle to launch her daugh­ter into the world is a mov­ing account of the oblig­a­tions and lim­i­ta­tions of moth­er­ing a child who is unable to chart her own course or tell her own sto­ry. Abright spot in the book and in Rachel’s life is the four months she spends at Kishorit, a kib­butz for devel­op­men­tal­ly dis­abled adults. 

Despite Rachel’s increas­ing desire for inde­pen­dence she is unable to devel­op even the most basic skills in self-care. Bern­stein allows the banal and often unflat­ter­ing details of life tell the sto­ry, for she seems intent upon giv­ing an hon­est por­tray­al of her daugh­ter. In describ­ing the frus­tra­tions of being an advo­cate in a sys­tem that is illog­i­cal and ever chang­ing, the author offers a painful­ly detailed account that pow­er­ful­ly explains the seething anger any­one would feel try­ing to nav­i­gate the Byzan­tine paths of pub­lic fund­ing for men­tal­ly retard­ed citizens. 

It is against this back­drop that Bern­stein search­es for a place that Rachel can receive the kind of care she needs and the dig­ni­ty she deserves.