While on vacation my younger sister lent me the book, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," to read, which she had to read for a college class. I mention it, because the autistic boy often refers to astronomy, mathematics, his logical approach to a disbelief in God, and even the back of the book has all these math problems. It's a fast read, a matter of hours, and I couldn't put it down. His manner of observation impressed me most, and when he runs away to London, experiencing trains and subways for the first time, he very acutely describes information-overload from all the signs and advertisements, rushing people, etc. From his autistic perspective, when the "noise" gets to be too much, he searches for that place like white noise between radio stations to calm his mind.

The narrator is quirky and amusing, not necessarily because he's autistic, but because the author doesn't let the reader pity him. I regret not having heard of it before; this autistic reviewer gives it all stars.

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Sunset

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge. In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind.

I've read it too, and I enjoyed it.

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If this writing is blue you're going too fast!

I am informed that the protagonist has Asperger Syndrome

Some links that might be of use but most are from the UK

The National Autisic Society
A general site about autism, which also mentions Asperger Syndrome Their section on Asperger Syndrome

Developmental Adult Neuro-Diversity Association
An organisation that a very close friend of mine is a member of. They deal with a number of Neuro Diverse conditions as well as Asperger Syndrome

Asperger's Syndrome Coalition of the U.S.
One link from the US

Aspergernauts

North East Neuro Diverse Adults
This is a site I look after, aimed at people in the North East of England. Like DANDA they also deal with a number of Neuro Diverse conditions as well as Asperger Syndrome. I joined this year shortly before I received my AS diagnosis.

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I read it and thought it was a wonderful book, one of the best I've read in years. It reminded of To Kill A Mocking Bird. It's full of the same life-affirming spirit.

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- Learn a lot teaching others.

Another thumbs-up from me. Beautifully done.

The ending is hopeful, but one wonders whether the hope is a false one. It would be an amazing achievement for the book's narrator to succeed in the academic world.

OTOH, it has been done. I know of one autistic PhD (whose name I don't recall); she designs slaughterhouses and other animal handling facilities. She approaches the problem from the animals' point of view (which seems a bit odd in the case of an abbatoire) but apparently works quite well.

The narator has aspergers and I'm quite sure that tons of them have phd's....

Especially in maths and science...

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If this writing is blue you're going too fast!

Sticks, I'm wondering why all the reviews, and reveiwers, let alone my sister who had to read this for school, refer to him as autistic, including an autistic reviewer. Is this a misunderstanding or just sort of generalizing the term autistic? How were you informed? My office supports a home for autistic kids, and I realized that the narrator, Christopher, was more intellectually advanced than the kids we support--many of them, say 18 year olds, love working with puzzles, but they can not do math or study astronomy like the narrator did, and they definitely would not make it to London by trains and subways by themselves.

Thanks for the links, UK links are fine as all, and besides, it's a British author.

Edit add: OK, reading the links on asperger syndrome, I see that people are generalizing the term autistic. The definition here fits the narrator to a T. I liked his very concise explanations for objects, and his diagram of The Monty Hall Problem, and his defending Marilyn Vos Savant, is one of the clearest. He also talks about how metaphors are confusing, and he doesn't like them, because they are not "real." Similies were OK at times, however.

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Sunset

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge. In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind.

I liked the book and the narrators viewpoint. I wasn't sure who the target audience was, it seemed to simplistic and the ending too upbeat for adults; maybe I'm just too cynical.