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600 Hours Of Edward (2009)

by Craig Lancaster(Favorite Author)

4.14 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1606390139 (ISBN13: 9781606390139)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Riverbend Publishing

series

Edward

review 1: It does seem there is rather a trend for novels with autistic narrators written by non-autistic authors, and they seem to go along something like this:'I woke up at precisely 7:23am - I knew this from turning my head a 90 degree angle and seeing the digital clock on my bedside table. This is two minutes later than the average time I have woken up so far this year (there have been 233 days so far because it's a leap year). I keep a chart of it, along with the numbers of left turns and right turns I make in every journey, and the estimates I make of the body weight and age of every person I meet, because we autistic people love numbers and applying them to pointless things like this, and mentioning these things on every page will remind you that I'm autistic and that this bo... moreok is written by a clever author who knows all about autism.'And of course, all us genuine autistic people are reading thinking 'WTF? Is this how the world really thinks we think?'On the other hand, as with The Rosie Project, a lot of the behaviours of this character are actually very realistic and believable. I suspect the author knows some people on the autism spectrum and has observed their behaviour pretty accurately. It's just the inner voice of the character that is so lacking. As if numbers are the main focus of an autistic person's thoughts, rather than merely a strategy to make some sense of the world. There is never any depth of personhood beneath the numbers in these sorts of books. No soul, no complexity, and certainly none of the utterly overwhelming chaos that underlies the numbers (or whatever other strategy an autistic person might use - contrary to what the media would have you believe, we don't all focus on numbers!). Just a simplistic character who is half-child, half-robot. The plot was fairly predictable. It was an okay read. Fairly absorbing. I've no desire to read about any more of Edward's hours though!
review 2: Edward is 39 years old and has Asperger's Syndrome along with compulsive behavior problems. He does not work and he lives in a house that belongs to his father, who he has never been able to please. Its an interesting take on how the parents reactions to their childs behavior effects the behavior of the child (not that Edward is a child any longer). He lives a rather lonely life, but his compulsive behavior does tend to keep him busy, such as logging every day the time he wakes up, and watching "Dragnet" everynight at 10 pm. I of course pictured Edward as Sheldon from the "Big Bang Theory" and I enjoyed this book. less

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