This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reading Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project sparked something in me that made the book an absolute delight. There is something about finding a novel where the author taps into a completely different way of thinking that just grips me and Don Tillman certainly looks at life in a different way to most. Simsion himself says: 'Wherever he [Don] goes, he creates disruption and humour – and perhaps gets us to consider other ways of looking at familiar situations and behaviour.'
When describing him to friends (and telling them how badly they needed this book in their lives!), I described him as a combination of Christopher from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Sherlock Holmes – brilliant, clever, socially awkward and often wildly inappropriate. There is something so charming and captivating, after all, about a character who says things the way he sees them, who cannot comprehend phrases like 'water under the bridge' (what bridge?). There is brutal honesty and, in that, Simsion finds romance, which is just as honest and completely intoxicating.
Of course, Simsion isn't the first author to explore this different way of seeing the world. Mark Haddon did it with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time without actually labelling it as Aspergers or Autism. He simply wanted to explore that different mindset and, in doing so, opened up the reader's perspective at the same time. I should know, the book changed my life!
The Curious Incident was a fun adventure story, with a case to solve and truth to uncover and in Christopher, the serious events which take place throughout the book, somehow became far less serious. He was so very pragmatic about it all that it was hard to get emotional.Haddon says on his site that 'labels say nothing about a person. they say only how the rest of us categorise that person. Good literature is always about peeling labels off.' In looking at life through Christopher's own eyes, Haddon certainly managed to achieve that!
For Jodi Picoult, it was her autistic cousin David who opened her eyes to it. While researching for the book she met many children with Aspergers and said that she found them 'funny, quirky, frustrating, and just as individual as you or I.'
Picoult took a far more serious look at Aspergers with her book, House Rules. In the book, Jacob is obsessed with crime scene investigation so, when he gets involved in a murder case, all the evidence seems to point to him as the chief suspect. After all, he doesn't like to make eye contact and certainly does not feel empathy. His Aspergers means that all his social etiquette has been learned, it does not come naturally. And he has been prone to violent outbursts when things upset him…
Picoult bravely looks at the prejudice so inherent in society. Because Autism is not a visible disability, many onlookers pass judgement without understanding the situation. In House Rules, this is evident not just within his family, but by the police officers and many people who cross paths with Jacob who have very little understanding of what his Aspergers really means. He simply wants to be understood – something that proves tremendously difficult.
These three authors have each explored the intricacies and difficulties of living at the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum. While one is romantic, another is adventurous and another is (potentially!) dangerous. The one element that unifies these three fascinating characters, however, is their very unique way of seeing the world exactly as it is – and in reading their stories, we might just gain a new perspective on our own.
Have you found reading a particular novel opened your eyes to a brand new perspective?