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Setting
This book takes place in the near future [the actual date goes unstated]. The main character is one of the last autists - by this point in society, autism has been cured in infants and fetuses, but the main character was born just a trite to early to receive the treatment. Lou is 40, and he has a daily schedule that he rigorously follows. The cities, and society, seem to be similar to what we have today. -
Lou Arrendale
Lou Arrendale, the protagonist of the story, is an autist. His near-future society has found a cure for autism in newborns and fetuses, but he was born before they had the technology. Instead, he underwent countless therapies and special sorts of things that helped him learn things that come to "normal" people easily, such as emotions and how to read expressions. As an adult in his forties he has a job at a well-known pharmaceutical company; he’s in a department with a group of other autists. -
Lou Arrendale [Part II]
Lou's job is "pattern finding".
He has adjusted well to life – he's got a daily schedule. He attends fencing classes at Tom & Lucia’s house every Wednesday. Although he’s well-adjusted, he faces some annoyances and road blocks: A generally clueless psychologist that treats him like a mix between a trained dog and a baby, mixed signals from fellow fencer, Marjory, Emmy, a rude, overzealous snob, and of course, there’s discrimination from everyone that realizes he’s autistic. -
Mr. Crenshaw
Mr. Crenshaw, an outsider (and a vile, ignorant man) becomes the senior manager of the pharmaceutical company. He seems to have a vendetta against the autists – he wants to either take away all their special equipment (such as music, special chairs, and a trampoline – all of which increase productivity massively) on the grounds that it “costs too much”. He doesn’t understand that it does not, in fact, cost too much, with how productive the department is. -
Airport Discrimination
Marjory, Lou's crush from fencing class, opts to take Lou to the airport to pick up her friend, Karen. Marjory passes through the security gates unchallenged, but when Lou tries to go through, the guard asks for an ID and a ticket (although these aren’t necessary to pick up someone). Lou gets unable to speak when he gets nervous, and has to give his “I’m autistic” card to the man. He tells Marjory that he stopped Lou because he "looked suspicious". Lou drives home. -
Autistic Primates
Lou's friend links him to an article which, which is about autistic-like symptoms in primates. The author of the article claims that this information and the resulting treatment might, one day, be applicable to humans.
Lou’s friends at work, who are also autists, do not want the treatment. They’re fine the way they are, they reason. Lou also talks to his department's manager, Mr. Aldrin. Aldrin says he wants to help them against Crenshaw, and they decide that they need to find a lawyer. -
Crenshaw's Ultimatum
Crenshaw reveals that the treatment is being used on humans; it's in its experimental trials, so far. He wants Lou's department to take it and be a part of the research; he wants to "cure" them and make them "normal", so they "cost less money". He also wants to up his reputation with his bosses. -
The Fencing Tourney
Tom and Lucia take Lou to a local fencing tournament; some of Lou's other friends from fencing class arrive, including Don [a self-righteous, naive guy that failed a tournament hard some years ago], who doesn't believe in Lou. Lou proves the naysayers wrong - he won two and lost two, which is excellent for a newbie. He proves, to himself, that he can do things like a "normal" person would. -
Slashed Tires
Lou sees that all four tires on his car have been slashed by some unknown assailant (which is strange, as the area is mostly peaceful, and he doesn't have any real enemies). A policeman that lives in the same apartment complex helps him report it and get new tires. Lou is forced to use public transit to get to work; he is late, and Mr. Crenshaw chews him out for it. -
Shattered Windshield
When Lou is at fencing practice, someone shatters the windshield of his parked car. Tom reports it to the police. The culprit goes uncaught. -
Aldrin takes Action
The department manager Section A (the autists), Mr. Aldrin, begins to try to get dirt on things like the rules, stipulations, and funding, to see if Crenshaw is violating any of the employee's rights by making them get treatments. It turns out that he is, indeed. Aldrin also learns that what Crenshaw is doing is going to be used to further his own, greedy intentions. -
Emmy
Emmy, a person that sees Lou every week at the local Community Center, where he goes for autism meetings and whatnot, "informs" Lou that Marjory, his crush, is a researcher for the treatment. She claims that she actually hates him, and that she only sees him as a test subject. Lou tries to ignore her, but her words take root in his mind. -
The Presentation
Mr. Aldrin has all of the autists in his department come to a meeting in a college, where he has a guest speaker. The speaker is a doctor and he explains, essentially, what research has led up to the current treatment theory. He explains how autism works, too, but in difficult terms. Lou wants to understand, so he... -
The Books
... decides to read up on thinks like basic biology texts, because he wants to learn how his brain works. He finishes many books of relevance (that would take a college kid a lot longer!) in about a week - biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, etc. Tom and Lucia lend him a book that delves into neurology. -
Stolen Battery
Someone steals the battery from Lou's car when he is in the safety of his own home. When he checks under hte hood to see what's wrong, a jack-in-the-box peers out from where the battery should be; he doesn't touch it. He is forced to ride the transit to work, and Crenshaw gets angry. He calls the police, and Mr. Stacy [the officer that handled the report of the slashed tires] talks to him. They establish possible culprits, including Don and Emmy. The officers find an explosive underneath the toy -
Revenge
Don attempts to kidnap Lou when he's exiting a store; he blames Lou for being kicked out of Tom's place, being told off by Marjory, and his lack of a good job. He points a gun at Lou and tells him to get in a car; Lou parries him and send the weapon flying, and hits him in the stomach. People start freaking out, and Officer Stacy arrives. The other officers take Don away, and Stacy tries to convince Lou to STAY AT HIS APARTMENT, rather than leave to do trivial things like buy groceries. -
The Statement
Stacy comes to Lou's house to collect a statement; he later has Lou sign a transcript of it. He tells Lou that if Don is found guilty at his hearing, he might have a chip implanted into his brain. The chip would override his personality and prevent him from doing anything that he isn't directly told to do. Also, Cameron decides to be the first person to use the treatment. -
Halt
Aldrin gets contacted by a higher-up; a person with more power than Crenshaw. He informs Aldrin that Section A no longer had to participate or lose their jobs, but that since they had already taken the preliminary tests, they could continue if they wanted to. Crenshaw is escorted out of the building by security. Cameron is still not heard from. -
LifeTime
The autists are offered the chance to take a "LifeTime" treatment that will extend their lives, as long as the "autism-fixing" tests turn out in a good way. The company doesn't want to provide LifeTime treatments at the moment, though. Lou decides to take the "fixing" treatment to be a "normal" person, but he wonders how he'll feel about her once he's "normal". -
Fuzzy
After the surgery treatment, Lou feels vaguely different. Hazy. Fuzzy, even. He lives day-to-day; immediately after, he was unable to walk. He's now in therapy.
His mind is sort of split into "Lou-before" and "Lou-after".
Some of his friends from work decided to take the treatment, too; a few of the treatments failed radically. -
Seven Years Later
Lou leads a seemingly "normal" life. He left all of his old friends behind during the first few years of recovery - Tom, Lucia, etc. His feelings did not carry over for Marjory.
Yet, somehow, he still retains some of Lou-before. He chose to go on, to risk sucess, to find new friends, to be where he is now.
[Date =/= seven years because everything on the other side bunched up.] -
Rating
I would give this book, on a numerical scale, an eight out of ten.
The ending was both open and closed, if that makes sense. -
My Reaction
This book was very interesting. Sometimes, it's a bit difficult to read [with the fusing of the writing style and the point-of-view of Lou] at times, but it's a good read nonetheless. It offers some very intriguing, philosophical thoughts - is there a speed of dark? Is "dark" only the absence of light, or is it another thing entirely? "Dark" does indeed seem to be faster of light if "dark" is considered "ignorance", and "light" is considered "knowledge".
