The Speed of Dark

[beccaelizabeth]

I read this book between midnight and eight in the morning on a day when I had in fact woken up in the a.m.
This was not a book to sample and put down again, in other words.

The central character is autistic, and despite recommendations that part made me waaaaay nervous about starting to read this one. Last time I read a book allegedly about someone on the autistic spectrum it left me feeling turned inside out and scraped raw. Like it had looked at me through funhouse glass, seen all sorts of Wrong bits and tried to show them to the rest of the world as True. Also it lied and cheated about what kind of book it was. Not a detective story. Just a big long description of someone's problems.

This book? I got half way through and I was *hugging* this book. Er, yes, literally. I'm odd. But, and this is the good bit, so is Lou, the central character here - and in a way that made me feel I could fit inside this character. I got through most of this book and felt warm and shiny on the inside. And right from reading the first chapter I started noticing the language I'd been given to talk about him and me. I found myself thinking he was more impaired, or I wasn't so bad, and then feeling like that was an all wrong way to say it. He's different from me. But reading his way of seeing and thinking felt like *relaxing*, like I didn't have to translate that. And his questions make so much more sense than the NT characters questions! And then there's so many things he can do, and it shows that. And it doesn't flinch from the difficult things either. Getting stopped or threatened by people for no reason he can figure out. Being so much in a routine it puts him in danger. Not being able to talk when things get tight. It isn't portraying him as just better, but it's not portraying him as just worse either. And I'm so loving that part.

As the back of the book tells you, Lou is autistic and an experimental cure comes along and he has to deal with being pressured to take it. And the book is all his questions that are raised by that. What is normal and why do people want him to be it anyway? And how normal are they? And how much is that he has a label so that's the filter they see him through? And... does he really want his difficulties, because they're also real, even without the layers the way people treat him add.

So the end of the book gets a bit scary. I think I'd rather say The End a couple chapters sooner. But I'm glad the book follows through on its setup.



I had more clever thinks to say about this when I wrote about it in email. But that didn't send. Probably. And also is on the other computer.


I liked this book so much I'm now scared to re-read it in case it turns out to not be so cool when I look at it again. If I don't re-read then it's all kinds of shiny for always. But it probably is anyway.

Comments

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

That one looks interesting. Thanks for the rec.