Ewwww. I don't think I like this at all.
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Ewwww. I don't think I like this at all.
| Wed, 03-03-2010 - 8:28pm |
House Rules by Jodi Picoult
As described in the ad from Barnes & Noble:
"Jacob is not your typical teenager. His incredible intelligence is used by police to help solve crimes. But Jacob also has Asperger's Syndrome. And when his tutor is found dead, instead of the police turning to Jacob for answers, they question him for murder. Now Jacob's lawyer is faced with the challenge of proving Jacob's innocence, when all signs point to guilt."
Amy
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Amy
For my inlaws it was "curious incident of the dog in the nighttime" that finally brought some level of understanding. Ugh.
As for this new book.....doesn't surprise me from Jodi Picoult. I like her stuff but it is formulaic and she tends to write about big current issues so AS being a topic, not a shock.
As for the tutor, doesn't surprise me. Could be one of those things where the kids is a geniuos in logic but can't write a paper or deal with regular school work to save his life. I have 2 gifted/high IQ aspies who are both in special ed and both need to recieve help and accomodations in at least one academic area. In fact both are classified as specific learning disabled as well as autistic and both have IQs in the 120-140 range. Not as high I am sure as the kid in the book but it makes my point.
In addition could be a tutor for other things as well. An ABA type tutor for behavior or social skills.
I don't expect this book to be terribly accurate but it is likely to be an interesting read. I wonder how she treats the whole issue of the AS person involved in the death of the tutor. Did the AS person have something to do with it (all be it by mistake). Are they blamed solely because of circumstance and crappy social skills that make them look guilty. Hmmmm.
Well, she it sounds like she actually stole the plot from Steig Larsson, and in my opinion he is a far better writer than she'll ever be (she's always struck me as very formulaic and bandwaggony): his Aspie is an amazing complex character who is a world-class hacker working with the police who gets caught up in international crime and accused of murder (but also to be fair, does some killing herself on the way...oh just read the books, they are terrific LOL)
These things are only ever going to be a fictional portrayal of one author's views of a character - although I thought The Curious Incident book was actually pretty good - and it's nice that authors are starting to see people with ASD as real, complex people with lives and stories, rather than as a cypher or bit part player in someone else's (usually the carer) drama (kind of like the way 20 years ago all the women's parts in movies seemed to be girlfriends or wives of heroes, and increasingly they are now people and lead characters in their own right). I think if we saw disabled people more generally as part of mainstream drama you'd see more ASD pople - you do see/read far more of them these days than you did even 10 years ago.
If she handles it badly it's because she's a poor writer, not because Aspergers isn't an interesting plot device!
Kirsty, mum to Euan (11, Aspergers) Rohan (7, NT) and Maeve (4, NT)
"My definition of housework is to sweep the room with a glance"
Follow my blog on http://mumsnet.com/blogs/kirsteinr/