Marcelo in the Real World [Hardcover]

Francisco Stork (Author), Francisco X. Stork (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2009

Imagine CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG . . . with a romance, and you have the beginnings of this story of a young man struggling with the world outside his head--and the woman who gets inside it.

Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear--part of the autism-like impairment no doctor has been able to identify--and he's always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm's mailroom in order to experience "the real world." There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm. (cont'd)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Artfully crafted characters form the heart of Stork's (The Way of the Jaguar) judicious novel. Marcelo Sandoval, a 17-year-old with an Asperger's-like condition, has arranged a job caring for ponies at his special school's therapeutic-riding stables. But he is forced to exit his comfort zone when his high-powered father steers Marcelo to work in his law firm's mailroom (in return, Marcelo can decide whether to stay in special ed, as he prefers, or be mainstreamed for his senior year). Narrating with characteristically flat inflections and frequently forgetting to use the first person, Marcelo manifests his anomalies: he harbors an obsession with religion (he regularly meets with a plainspoken female rabbi, though he's not Jewish); hears internal music; and sleeps in a tree house. Readers enter his private world as he navigates the unfamiliar realm of menial tasks and office politics with the ingenuity of a child, his voice never straying from authenticity even as the summer strips away some of his differences. Stork introduces ethical dilemmas, the possibility of love, and other real world conflicts, all the while preserving the integrity of his characterizations and intensifying the novel's psychological and emotional stakes. Not to be missed. Ages 14–up. (Mar.)
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From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 8 Up—Like Christopher Boone, the protagonist in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Doubleday, 2003), Marcelo Sandoval is a high-functioning, extremely self-aware teenager with Asperger's syndrome. He has an empathetic mother and a father, Arturo, who appears to be less empathetic as he pushes Marcelo to live in the "real world." The form the real world takes is a summer job in the mailroom at Arturo's law office. The teen is forced to think on his feet, multitask, and deal with duplicitous people who try to take advantage of him. Over the course of a summer, Marcelo learns that he can function in society; he is especially surprised to find that he can learn to read people's expressions, even to the point of knowing whom he can and cannot trust. Writing in a first-person narrative, Stork does an amazing job of entering Marcelo's consciousness and presenting him as a dynamic, sympathetic, and wholly believable character. At a little over 300 pages, the story drags at some points, bogging down in the middle. However, the dilemmas that Marcelo faces are told in a compelling fashion, which helps to keep readers engaged.—Wendy Smith-D'Arezzo, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (March 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545054745
• ISBN-13: 978-0545054744
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #265,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Francisco X. Stork is the author of The Way of the Jaguar (Bilingual Review Press- 2000); and Behind the Eyes (Dutton: June 2006.) He was born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1953, but moved to El Paso, Texas with his adoptive father when he was nine. He attended Spring Hill College (a Jesuit College in Mobile Alabama). He received a Danforth Fellowship to Harvard University where he studied Latin American Literature for four years before changing courses and attending Columbia Law School. He makes his living as a lawyer working for a state agency in charge of developing affordable housing. He writes novels, working on them every day in the early morning before work and in the evenings. Novel writing is not a hobby for him. It is a duty and joy all wrapped up in one. His hope is that people, especially young people, will see in his Mexican American characters the hopes, fears, nobility, faults and limitations inherent in all people. The Way of the Jaguar (his first novel)takes place in a prison and part of the story in Behind the Eyes (his second novel)takes place in a reform school for young men. However, he has never been in prison other than as a visitor. Despite the rich symbolical value of prisons, there will not be any more prison novels. As far as he can tell.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Of The Most Beautiful Books I Have Ever Read, November 6, 2008

By 

Karen Joan "Siren" (Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marcelo in the Real World (Hardcover)

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MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD is quite simply one of the most beautiful and moving stories that I have ever read. By author Francisco X. Stork, this lovely, thoughtful book tells the very special story of Marcelo, a seventeen year-old boy with a high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. Told from Marcelo's point of view, the reader is transported into a very unique way of thinking, bringing Marcelo's world alive with amazing clarity and detail.

In MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD, Marcelo Sandoval has always experienced music in his head that no one else can hear, and he has always attended a school where his unique differences and abilities have been nurtured and protected. But the summer before his senior year, his father requires Marcelo to work in his law firm's mailroom, so that Marcelo can begin to understand and experience "the real world," and, perhaps, attend the mainstream high school for his final year. At the law firm, Marcelo develops friendships with Jasmine and Wendell. But are they real friendships? Only time will tell. As the summer unfolds, Marcelo learns about many new emotions and ways of life, from competition, jealousy, anger, and desire, to patience, control, wisdom, and strength. When he finds a disturbing photo in a box of documents to be destroyed - a picture of a girl with horrific injuries - Marcelo finally, truly connects with the real world, and begins to understand his place in it. Marcelo learns about pain, suffering, and injustice in the world, as well as what he can do to fight it.

This story is told in the first person by Marcelo, and it his most unusual way of thinking and speaking that completely draws the reader in. It takes Marcelo longer than most of us to thoroughly process input and information (although he processes much MORE information than you or me), and you would think that this would slow down the pace and reading of this story, but it absolutely does not. The reader becomes so completely absorbed in Marcelo's mind that the story speeds along. I was actually shocked when I came to the end of the book. I could not put it down.

All the characters, including Marcelo, are real, alive, and wonderfully developed. Human to the last, each has their own strengths and foibles, and each affects Marcelo (and the reader) in a different way. I believed in these characters; their breadth of emotion brought them off the page and into my life. I applaud Francisco X. Stork and his amazing literary talent for creating this unique world.

While this book is marketed for teens, I think older teens and adults alike will appreciate the unusual and beautiful wisdom of Marcelo. I give MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good exploration of AS, December 10, 2008

By 

Pop S "The FT Clan" (Oak Ridge, Tn USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marcelo in the Real World (Hardcover)

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I chose to read this book because of a personal interest in literature dealing with Asperger's syndrome, also sometime referred to as "high functioning autism." Marcelo, the main character of the book is so afflicted, although as he puts it, he doest not "have many of the characteristics" that define a person with Aspergers.

Marcello has been raised in a somewhat protected environment, attending a special school where is "difference" is not much of an issue. He is forced to work at a law firm one summer where he discovers much more about life.

The book is written first person, providing a chance for the reader to reach into the thought processes of Marcelo as he moves through various situations. I found the book successful at explaining how Marcelo thinks about the things in his world. This was most frequently done, however, through Marcelo explaining thing to the reader, rather than living the events and having the explanations develop in the reader's mind. .

I personally found the characters to be overstated as either forces of good or forces of evil. In the world of the law office, for example, Marcello finds an island of good surrounded by basically corrupt individuals. The only "good lawyer" is fired from the firm. Part of this may be realistic, I don't know, but to me it was overstated.

Overall, I gave the book a rating of three stars. On the plus side, it does a reasonable job of lending understanding to people with AS. When you run into them, you will have a better understanding of what they deal with. The matters of character and writing style I previously mentioned kept me from giving it a higher score.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What a beautiful book! Fall in love with Marcelo....., November 6, 2008

By 

Denise Crawford "DC" (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marcelo in the Real World (Hardcover)

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I had picked this book up a couple of times in the last 2 weeks but always set it aside to read something else. Finally I opened it and began - then I could not put it down! I immediately fell in love with the main character, Marcelo, who has some type of cognitive disorder in the autism/Asperger's spectrum. But this book is NOT about the neurobiological condition, but about the HUMAN condition.

Marcelo, age 17, is going to be a senior in high school. He has lived a somewhat coddled and sheltered life - living in a tree house next to the family home and going to a special school for children with disabilities. His father asks that he work the summer at his law firm in order to learn more about the "real world" and about the skills and abilities Marcelo will need for his future. Marcelo hesitantly agrees, knowing that the deal was that if he should do well, he will be permitted to return to his special school versus having to attend the public high school in the fall. Marcelo starts his job, meets his boss Jasmine and learns to make small talk, work and interact with the other employees in the firm, including the son of his father's partner - a playboy with a bad attitude and poor ethics.

In the course of the story, Marcelo learns some secrets about himself, his father, and about a lawsuit in progress that show him that all people are not completely good and that the world is not black and white. His special obsession is religion and there is a lot of spiritual discussion in the book which at times went on a little long, but Marcelo does learn how to differentiate within shades of gray to make a very momentous decision that will change his outlook and his life. Recommend: BUY IT!