book - Sissi - The Speed of Dark

[Guest guest]

After Sissi asked had anyone read the book The Speed of Dark, I ordered it.

I read the first two pages while waiting for my mail to download right now, and

I am FLOORED. I would type them out for you right here, right now, if I had the

patience. It is INCREDIBLE.

It's written from the point of view of a man with asperger's syndrome, and it

opens with a visit to his psychiatrist....

" Dr Fornum, so crisp and professional, raises an eyebrow and shakes her head not

quite imperceptibly. Autistic persons do not understand these signals; the book

says so. I have read the book, so I know what it is I do not understand. What

I haven't figured out yet is the range of things *they* don't understand. The

normals. The reals. The ones who have the degrees and sit behind the desks in

comfortable chairs. "

....and...

" She knows I work on a computer, she knows I went to school, but she has not

caught on that this is incompatible with her belief that I am actually nearly

illiterate and barely verbal. "

....and...

" When she answers the phone I can look around her office and find the twinkly

things she does not know she has. I can move my head back and forth so the

light in the corner glints off and on over there, on the shiny cover of a book

in the bookcase. If she notices that I'm moving my head back and forth she

makes a note in my record. She may even interrupt her phone call to tell me to

stop. It is called stereotypy when I do it and relaxing her head when she does

it. I call it fun, watching the reflected light blink on and off. "

I think this book is going to be something really amazing.

thanks for the heads up, Sissi!

Jacquie