So what I love about Jodi Piccoult is that she grapples with extremely difficult issues and does a pretty decent job with looking at them from various points of view. What I hated about the last couple of books I read was that they were so very similar in plot but even more that she threw in this last gut-punch for no discernible reason. The story was resolved. I don’t mind sad or even tragic stories. But don’t throw in something horrifying at the end just because.
Thankfully, while this book followed certain Piccoult formulas, it didn’t take that route at the end. It did have two siblings, same gender, one with special needs, and other one who is completely thrown aside by the mother who is completely focused on the special needs and acts out as a scream for attention. Now, I imagine it happens that way in some families. But I have known many families with special needs children who also manage to meet the emotional needs of their other children. I grow weary of all of Piccoult’s families looking the same.
She kept describing Jacob as having “high-functioning” Asperger’s. When an 18-year-old man is throwing full-blown tantrums because of the shirt he needs to wear or because his Friday meal isn’t all blue, that is not high-functioning. Maybe a high-functioning 10-year-old would be believable. But what she describes if full blown autism. Jacob may be smart and communicative, but he will never live alone, and every single person I have known with high-functioning Asperger’s is able to figure out how to live life. They are seen as quirky and may have some trouble with relationships. But they aren’t going to have a meltdown in a court room.
And this is the problem I always have with Piccoult. She goes to extremes to make a point. And that’s fine, but if you’re going to go to extremes, make him the extreme. Don’t say he’s high-functioning Asperger’s, because this is not what that looks like. I realize it is a spectrum. But Jacob is at a very extreme end of the spectrum.
All in all, I liked it better than the last two I read, but not as much as some of the books I read before (not necessarily in chronological order), which didn’t follow this formula. I hope she’ll break free of it.
Comfort Corner 