30 November 2009 MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD by Francisco X. Stork, Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, March 2009, 312p., ISBN: 978-0-545-05474-4
"'There's just one thing.' I see him pick up the glass of wine and raise it to his lips. This time his words come out very slow. 'You can do what you want in the fall...' He waits for my eyes to meet his eyes and then he continues. 'But this summer you must follow all the rules of the...real world.'
"'The real world.' I say out loud. It is one of Arturo's favorite phrases.
"'Yes, that's right. The real world.'
"As vague and broad as this term is, I have a sense of what it means and the difficulties that it entails. Following the rules of the real world means, for example, engaging in small talk with other people. It means refraining from talking about my special interest. It means looking people in the eye and shaking hands. It means doing things 'on the hoof' as we say at Paterson, which means doing things that have not been scheduled in advance. It may mean walking or going to places I am not familiar with, city streets full of noise and confusion. Even though I am trying to look calm, a wave of terror comes over me as I imagine walking the streets of Boston by myself.
"Arturo smiles as if he knows what is going through my mind. 'Don't worry,' he says soothingly, 'we'll go slow at first. The real world is not going to hurt you.'"
You might best describe seventeen-year-old Marcelo Sandoval's condition as his being on the high-functioning end of the Asperger's spectrum. Nevertheless, his attorney father Arturo has, until now, consented to Marcelo's long-time attendance at a special private school and to his son's living in a customized tree house in the family's yard. But, in order to return to Paterson for his senior year, instead of the public high school in which Arturo prefers he now be enrolled, Marcelo must spend this summer successfully working in Arturo's law firm, in the mailroom, under the direction of a young woman named Jasmine. Arturo owns the law firm in partnership with Stephen Holmes, his former classmate at Harvard Law School. Holmes's son Wendell, a Harvard student and world-class sleezebag, is also being required to work the summer at the firm.
There are four important and interwoven threads to the story as it moves forward: Marcelo coming to discover that he can sense emotions that he previously did not believe he could experience; his coming to know and form a mutual trust and friendship with Jasmine; his challenges of dealing with Wendell; and his quest for a humane resolution to the situation -- one he discovers upon finding a photo buried amidst law firm files -- of a pretty adolescent girl who has had half her face savaged in a car accident because the windshield manufactured by the law firm's largest client did not break on impact into lots of little pieces as it should have.
Being that there are just too many books, I have learned that, before I begin contemplating a best-of-the-year list, I should at least try to look back and find one of the more important books I've so far missed, and read it. MARCELO is a book that has gotten a load of praise and which I was told, long ago by many, that I must read. Now, fortunately, I have done so.
Because of Marcelo's condition, this book has been compared by some to the best-selling CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME. I wouldn't be in a hurry to make that comparison, being that I enjoyed this one so much more than I did CURIOUS INCIDENT. If I had to compare MARCELO to another book I would, instead, point to (the nonfiction adult book from a decade ago) A CIVIL ACTION, which is probably the last time I was so emotionally caught up in a legal thriller.
And Jasmine is just such a great, complicated character who threatens to steal the show. At those times when Marcelo is forced to be working elsewhere, I repeatedly found myself trying to peer around the corner and see how/what Jasmine was doing. And Jasmine's father has got to be the funniest adult I've met in a book this year. Yeah, I can sure see what everybody is jumping up and down about.
And on top of everything else, we are exposed to an extraordinary piece of music by Satie. Here is a YouTube video of one rendition.
So play the video and, if you are as delinquent as I was in reading this one, it's time.
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