Here is what I propose: If you work at the law firm this summer, then at the end of the summer, you decide whether you want to spend your senior year at Paterson or at Oak Ridge High.First, some blathering. But in order for you to grow and not get stuck, you need to be in a normal environment. You just move at a different speed than other kids your age. All these years, it wasn't really necessary for you to go to Paterson.
He's said so since the very first time we saw him. You, on the other hand, have the ability to grow and adapt. Most of them will be the way they are all their lives. At Paterson you are in a protected environment. "It is an experience you haven't had, really.
This book will have readers taking a look at their own realities with perhaps a different point of view, and wondering if some aspects of Marcelo's so-called disability might actually be - enviable.
The author is at some pains to make clear that Marcelo's condition is not precisely autism or Asperger's Syndrome, but something related, and really it is more of a literary tool to allow the author to look at the ordinary world through extraordinary eyes. In the course of this summer Marcelo faces, thinks about, and discusses with other characters many issues that will fascinate readers as well, from relationships and sex to ethics, human nature, and some unusually deep conversations about religion. And it is seeing Marcelo grow in offbeat understanding of a kind seldom imparted to those with an ordinary view of the world that provides the heart. It is watching Marcelo, with his unusual way of thinking and perceiving, feel his way to a decision and the consequences it will entail that provides the story. The question is what Marcelo will do about it. Here the mystery isn't very mysterious - the reader, and very soon after, Marcelo, have a pretty good idea what happened. This book has frequently been compared with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, though the similarities are superficial: a high-functioning autistic teen narrator and a mystery. This is a beautifully written, carefully constructed, thought-provoking and moving story, with a kind of loving wisdom all too rare in fiction these days.
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