In addition to the number of books that purport to be written from an autistic perspective, there are a number of books with main characters who - if you know what you're looking at - are almost *certainly* autistic, but the word is never mentioned.
As a rule, this latter category of books tends to be better. I don't know why. Maybe it's because the focus is on the story rather than the message?
I read this book in one sitting at B&N. I didn't skip any passages, however, because I decided I didn't really care for it I don't have it at hand, so if I make a minor error of fact please just point it out to me and I'll fix it.
This book claims to be in the mind of an autistic boy. I say claims to be because, after reading the author's website and watching her video on the book, I am certain that the author is not, herself, on the spectrum. So what this book really is is a book about a NT trying to pretend to be realistically autistic enough to write a book from the perspective of an autistic boy. A daunting task to be sure, and I start to ask myself - why? Why aren't there more books by autistic authors? It's not that there are no autistic authors at all - off the top of my head I can count seven or eight, and I know there are many more. If anybody is qualified to say what life is like as an autistic individual, surely it's somebody who actually knows?
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "But if she wrote a good book, does it matter?"
And you're right. IF this book accurately catches the experience of being autistic, it doesn't matter that much who wrote it. Except I'm not convinced the author really "gets it". She has a video, as I said, about writing the book ([...]). Three things about this video really jump out at me.
First, there are no subtitles and there's no transcript. Many autistics, such as myself, have some degree of auditory processing issues. While I know we're not actually the intended audience of this book, how hard would it have been to transcribe a two minute video? When I see a video about writing a book from the perspective of an autistic individual, and there aren't even any printed words, I don't feel very hopeful.
The next thing that jumps out at me is that she says that "at the heart of any autism spectrum disorder is the issue of communication". Well, this is a common perspective all right - it's common to parents and doctors and teachers of autistic children. Do you know who doesn't hold this view? Autistics. As a group, autistics tend to say that sensory issues, emotional regulation, and information processing are central ([...]).
I understand why non-autistics tend to think it's a communication thing. They look at a kid, they see the kid can't talk or talks funny or talks about strange things. They see the kid does things that, to them, seem inexplicable or odd. And they assume that it's all "communication". But this is an outside-looking-in view. From your own brain, you'd know better.
And the third thing she said is that "sometime during writing" she realized that having trouble communicating is not the same as lacking feelings. Well, I'm glad she learned something during the writing process, but it sounds like she started off thinking that autistic people just, you know, don't have the same feelings as normal people. (And she's not even ashamed to admit it!)
I know, I know - what about the BOOK! You don't want to read about the author, right?
Well, you take an author who is new to the subject and certainly doesn't have an inside perspective, you're going to have some mishaps.
The main character is a boy whose inner narration includes a lot of thinking about how he thinks (I assure you, even when I've done a lot of reading on autism or psychology I don't sit around in my head - or even aloud! - talking about how I think), misunderstanding basic idioms, and having to puzzle out whether he's been insulted. He has no friends and doesn't anticipate getting any anytime soon, he spends a lot of time online but is unaware of the flourishing autistic community (which may mean he's supervised or it may mean that the author doesn't know about it although it's far from small or secret), he's bullied, he has no tolerance for change at all, and he's completely faceblind. Hey, you know who he reminds me of? That kid, the one in The Curious Incident!
Well, here's my big problem. I'm concerned that people are going to read this book, they're going to read that Dog in the Nighttime book, and they're going to say "Autism, if it doesn't make you like Rain Man or Susan in that BSC book then it makes you like those asocial losers".
Any of these traits can be found among autistics. I personally burst into tears once in the 11th grade when a kid sat in my seat and wouldn't move, while meanwhile the teacher couldn't understand why I was upset. But any one individual is unlikely to have *all* of them in the degree of our intrepid hero. It's building a new stereotype, and one that's not particularly helpful or useful. (And I know, some people are just like this kid. Some people of all groups fit more closely to "the stereotype", and that's fine, but that doesn't mean we should spread it around like most or all people fit it.)
This doesn't mean I think the book is all wrong in every respect. I think it's flawed, and I found the narration less than compelling, but there are some definite good points.
I love how the hypocrisy of claiming that only one party has "trouble communicating" is exposed. The librarian doesn't communicate well with him when she puts form (looking her in the eye) over function (being able to actually understand what is being said). The therapist doesn't communicate well when she "rewards" him with candy he saves to give to his younger brother because, after all, he doesn't like chocolate. (And it's clear that he does love his brother very much, a nice change of pace from some styles of books which think autistics don't form good relationships at all.) His mother certainly doesn't communicate well when she puts his appearance over his comfort, although of course she Means Well.
Although his Traits were exaggerated, they weren't completely unrealistic (and I'm sure some other people on the spectrum would say they were totally true to life. Over in a community I'm in we're still torn on the Curious Dog book - is it COMPLETELY wrong or COMPLETELY right? We just can't decide!), and showing him as being more than fluent online struck me as pretty true to life. And while I know as an adult that his fears that he'll never have friends, or a girlfriend, are not necessarily true (plenty of autistics with those same fears as kids grew up surprised to find that it's possible), it is true that teenagers, typical or not, will obsess over that sort of thing.
While I found his over-analytical narration annoying, if it were toned down it would strike me as more realistic.
And the author didn't do anything I found completely wrong or offensive. If she misunderstood the center, or if she overexaggerated everything, well, that's to be expected. It's hard to write from a perspective that's not actually your own.
So, to sum up, because I know this is super long (and I thank you for your patience in reading it all!):
1. The portrayal of autism is not completely accurate, but it's not so bad I wish it had never been written
2. While I wish we'd see more of these books written by autistic authors, this author did an acceptable job with what she has
I'm giving this three stars. Knowingly writing from the perspective of an autistic individual is a bit of a new subject, so it's going to take some time to see some REALLY good stuff in this field. And you could do worse than this book, I think.
Oh, and at the beginning I mentioned some books which have what appear to be autistic protagonists although the word is never mentioned. Lemonade War is one I liked, and that one Emma something-or-other Fell Out of a Tree is... well, it's okay, anyway. I'm still processing that one.
