Our Father Who Art in an Iron Lung

by Douglas Dodd

“Our Father, Who Art in an Iron Lung, a book-long love note to the necessary bridge between tragedy and perseverance, will captivate you. ... A carpenter by trade, Dodd constructs stories like one would a house built to sustain generations of life.”
- Melissa Cundieff, author of Darling Nova

In 1955, Bruce Dodd contracted polio and the lives of his wife and his four young children were forever changed. Bruce’s paralysis and his dependence on respirators, however, did not define him. Rather, they revealed his strength. For the next 21 years, much of it spent in an iron lung, Bruce defied limitations and was a devoted father, mentor and an unwavering source of inspiration. Through personal anecdotes, poetry, and heartfelt reflections, this memoir chronicles his journey, the sacrifices and resilience of his family, and the profound impact he had on those around him.

Bruce’s journey is told from the perspective of his son, Douglas Dodd. This deeply moving account explores not only Bruce’s life, but the challenges and triumphs of the entire family as they navigated disability, hardship, and their own personal trials. From childhood memories to life-altering struggles as an adult, —including the author’s own experiences raising a child with Down syndrome and almost becoming paralyzed himself—this book is a testament to the enduring power of love, family and determination.

For the 5.4 million Americans living with paralysis, their families, and anyone who has faced unexpected adversity, Bruce’s story offers hope, wisdom, and a reminder that even in the face of overwhelming obstacles, a meaningful and influential life is possible.

278 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 8, 2025

Reviews

[Bepis.・✫・゜・。. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley.

This was definitely an interesting read, and there were moments throughout this I don’t think I will ever forget.

Doug and his family were so brave dealing with these highs and lows at such a young age, but I’m also glad they did have a lot of neighbours and friends that were very supportive.

Thank you so much for sharing your story!

[Ashlee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard about this book and immediately knew I had to get my hands on it. I wanted to wait and see if the publisher would do an audiobook option, but I just didn’t have the patience to wait, I wanted to read this book now!

What an incredible story! It was almost like the author wrote a beautiful love letter to his family, during all the different stages of his life. I loved how open the author was about his life. The good, bad, ugly, and all the things that make up who we become. I loved that he acknowledged things that normally would be hidden away, such as the idea that he and his siblings almost had a different version of their mom. And although the author had positive to say, he was very aware his sister didn’t share this sentiment. The honesty was incredible.

I actually really enjoyed the format of the book. Since each idea or story was essentially its own chapter, it was easy to follow. This made it easy to keep track of different people mentioned, since they were within the story being told, within that chapter.

The humor in the book had me chuckle multiple times. I imagine there was a lot of underlying fear or anxiety about the “what ifs.” That being said, it sounds like the authors dad had a sense of humor and the ability to genuinely laugh in life. The “I can really walk” button” made me laugh out loud. Or the time he turned on his rocking bed and had a view up a visitor’s skirt as she adjusted herself. It was touching and clear that the authors dad really did choose to fight to survive.

This book did not disappoint! Thank you so much NetGalley for this wonderful read. I absolutely enjoyed it and can’t wait to tell my book friends about it!

[Katie O'Hara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished the book, and several times while reading I got goosebumps. But don’t let that stop you, it is also filled with humor. I laughed out loud during the “I can really walk” chapter, and I found the chapter where Doug argues with his father incredibly powerful.

Bruce may be the subject of the book, but by the end you feel that Doug is his avatar in the world, carrying his presence even after he is gone. Though Bruce spent twenty-one years paralyzed, he lived fully as a father who went to ball games, the muse of a poet, the town’s confessor, and the man who helped Vietnam War veterans get back on their feet. It was, without question, a life worth living.

This memoir also feels very timely in our post-pandemic world. Like it or not, we are a planet in grief. Some of us are in different stages: many remain paralyzed in anger, others are stuck in denial that the world has changed, and still more are weighed down by depression. Bruce and his family reached that rare place of acceptance, and I think we can all learn from that. More importantly, it offers an antidote, showing us how acceptance can give us the strength to reach out to our neighbors, even those resistant to change, and remind them that diseases like polio can be eradicated and that a full, beautiful life can still be lived, even with disability.

[Brit · Rating 4 out of 5]

The term “iron lung” has always carried a sense of otherworldliness for me - something almost alien, foreign, and frightening. I’d never seen one in my country, and the very idea of someone living inside such a machine both fascinated and unnerved me. Douglas Dodd’s Our Father Who Art in an Iron Lung gave me a chance to confront that fear and to understand not just the device, but the life of the remarkable man it sustained.

The memoir tells the story of Bruce Dodd, who contracted polio in 1955. His paralysis and dependence on respirators—much of it spent inside an iron lung—changed the lives of his wife and four young children forever. Yet Bruce’s life was defined not by limitation, but by resilience, courage, and devotion. Over the next twenty-one years, he became a devoted father, mentor, and inspiration to everyone around him. Through personal anecdotes, poetry, and heartfelt reflections, Douglas chronicles not just his father’s life, but the extraordinary sacrifices and endurance of the entire family.

One of the most striking aspects of this book is how humane and “normal” the iron lung feels through Douglas’s storytelling. Despite the unimaginable emotional and physical hardships, Dodd never over-dramatizes the narrative. Life for the Dodd family was anything but ordinary, yet the way it is recounted makes the story approachable, relatable, and deeply moving. The challenges they faced - raising young children, managing a household, and caring for Bruce - are almost incomprehensible, yet they persevered. I was particularly struck by Douglas’s mother, who became the family’s backbone: raising children, supporting her husband, running the household, and ensuring the family survived. She truly deserves a medal for her courage and strength - a superwoman without a cape.

Douglas offers a deeply personal perspective, weaving together the internal experiences of the family with the external reactions of neighbors, friends, and the wider community. As the children grow, attend university, build careers, and start their own families, the long-lasting influence of their unusual upbringing is evident in every aspect of their lives. The memoir’s first half focuses on Bruce and the family’s collective resilience, while the second half shifts to Douglas’s own life, showing how his father’s legacy shaped his relationships, career choices, and parenting.

What makes this story so poignant is its tone: sad, yet calm and neutral, allowing the reader to absorb the immense emotional weight without feeling overwhelmed. It’s a moving account of love, determination, and family bonds, told with humility and honesty. Douglas’s storytelling honors his father’s strength while reminding us that heroism can take many forms, often quiet and unseen.

Overall, Our Father Who Art in an Iron Lung is a profoundly human story of courage, endurance, and devotion. It is both a memoir of one extraordinary man and a testament to the strength of a family bound by love and perseverance. A remarkable read that will stay with you long after the last page.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atmosphere Press for the ARC and this unforgettable reading experience.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir felt like having a thousand cups of coffee with Doug; a man I have known since 1985 and whose writer’s voice is so clear that I “heard,” rather than read this book. It takes hard work to reflect upon a life as different as his has been and to create a memoir that is moving and inspiring. As contemporaries during the polio era, I identified with his recall of the fear that seemed just as contagious as the virus. As a young adult in the 1970s, somehow many of us managed to survive the drugs, alcohol, and social upheavals. This book reminded me of a time that is, thankfully, in the rear view mirror. Memoirs can often be self-aggrandizing affairs, but this one is just as unvarnished and true as a piece of good solid oak.

[Alicia Hagge · Rating 5 out of 5]

A biased review as Dougie is my uncle— but I found this book to be moving, heartfelt and clearly expressed. I appreciate learning more about the grandfather I never got to meet but whose life had such an impact on my whole family. Really lovely work Dougie!!!

[Dharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir has some wonderful and some harrowing moments.

Doug's father developed Poliomyelitis in August of 1955 when he was 6 years old. His father progressed rapidly to complete paralysis which lasted 21 years. Doug went from carefree 6 year old child to being the man of the house with 3 sisters and a mother who had to create a new identity for herself to provide for the family.

Doug is not afraid of deep personal revelations which elevate the memoir from the story of how one family is afflicted with a chronic illness to a more universal story of suffering, enduring, and overcoming. He is very accomplished at describing people, friends and family members, and their role in his life. Especially the conflicted, loving and changing relationship with his father and his father's illness.

He succeeds in creating a portrait of a man whose kindness and friendship brings a constant stream of friends to his bedside. His father went from being an MIT trained engineer, working in the bustling technology hub of Andover in the 1950s, to being horizontal and unable to perform the simplest task.

This is a story that deserves a fairy tale ending, and gets one.

Doug attended Phillips Academy as a day student. Every evening he would go home to care for his father. The demands placed on him led to a deterioration of his grades, and after meeting with the Dean of Students in his junior year he left PA and went to Andover High. The continued stress of his responsibilities, and his feelings of failure lead to alcohol and drug use. Working as a peon for the Appalachian Mountain Club on Mt Washington helped him learn leadership skills. Following an aimless period in the early 1970s, he falls into a job as a carpenter, learns to build houses, and eventually becomes a developer of multiple unit residences and custom homes. Working with his hands brings him the comfort and security of mastery that he needs to succeed.

Throughout his story, relationships are key to understanding who he is and how he changes. Children, a divorce, and finding a new wife help propel him to self knowledge and acceptance. Lest I make it sound too dreary, there a good laughs and plenty of funny moments.

An important theme of the memoir is the expiation of regret. How we look back at minor and major episodes of selfishness, meanness, and wrongheadedness and try to understand, explain and forgive ourselves. It is a battle that many of us struggle with as we age and look back at our lives.

A life well lived, and a life well told.

[Chris]

To be clear this is not a book about a man in an iron lung, but about that man’s son. That a man, stricken with paralytic polio, could live another 21 years mostly with the aid of this unwieldy—inhuman, you might say—medical device is remarkable. It’s remarkable that Bruce Dodd manages to keep his humanity, and, by his son’s account, even exemplify the best of humanity.
I wish there was more about Bruce Dodd’s condition, the care such patients received at the time, and the existence of others like him. Doug Dodd provides a lot of conjecture about what it “must have been like”. Most of those who could provide first-hand accounts, of course, are dead.
The book shows how the care the young Doug gave his father, prepared, or groomed, him to be a supportive aide to one of his daughters, who is later born with Downs Syndrome. As a 6-year old, the author was the hands of his paralyzed father, following instructions to complete necessary, complicated, often life-saving, tasks. As a grown man, Doug has built a life as a carpenter and contractor, working with his hands and those first instructions in life. I enjoyed reading about Doug’s building experience, a business instinct that surely he inherited from his mom.
There’s a few chapters in the book that seem to meander into “drinking stories”, that don’t seem relevant to the main theme of the book. Personally, I found them interesting because, for example, I know the river he went tubing in, know the exact spot he nearly drowned—it is not so turbulent these days— and, am even acquainted with one of two guys he took that fateful ride with. The West River holds many stories of misguided youth trying to master its Springtime rapids.
On the whole, OFWAIAIL is “folk” memoir, a tale of connection between family— the qualities and characteristics passed on through generations—and friends— the assistance, and sometimes, the blind chance, with which we survive.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the 1950's Polio took a terrible toll. Many died, were crippled. Some had to rely on a machine called an Iron Lung to breathe for them as they were unable to move. Many did not survive long, but this book tells of Bruce Dodd who lived on for over twenty years. This moving book, mostly told through the eyes of his only son, relates how, far from being useless, Bruce became a person that would always listen.

At only six years old, Doug became the man of the house. He tells his story warts and all. He admits to his many failings but his love and admiration for his father shines through. This book could have been a bleak story of someone cut down in their prime. Instead it is a tale of bravery, endurance and positivity. Thanks to Netgalley & te publisher for letting me read & review this book. I think it is probably one of the most moving stories I've read.

[Christine Cazeneuve · Rating 4 out of 5]

So the title is a little bit misleading. Yes the book touches on the author's father's life, but it's more about the life of the author and his family. The author holds nothing back - the good, the bad and the darkest parts of their lives. At times it does get a tad confusing as the timeline jumps around but it's a good read nonetheless. The book comes with pictures which I always appreciate. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Esther Cohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an incredible read. A powerful, at times funny narrative of life in the 50s, 60s and beyond, with a father bound to an iron lung. It’s really hard to fathom that life but Douglas’ writing brings a very clear vision. A beautiful story of family love, support and undying willpower.

[Lee Warburton · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book about a family that faced medical and emotional challenges and persevered .

[Phil T · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like a collage: a collection of seemingly simple memories which build on each other to tell a very complex and moving life story. Totally engaging from page one to the very end.