Just as a distraction, I'll write about Marti Leimbach's book Daniel Isn't Talking. I was bemused to find out it was sold out of our Borders almost immediately. It's ranked 31 on the bestseller list--maybe that ended up surprising the bookstores, but given the autism numbers, there's definitely an audience. Anyway, I picked up a copy yesterday and finished it in a couple of hours. Quick read.

She's very good on some things: the way the mother compares her child to other typical children, the envy she feels, the alienation from (and hostility to) the "normal" mothers. I wasn't so sold on the character as a character, especially at the beginning: she didn't strike me as especially funny or bright, though she was billed as. I liked some of the things she did: the crazy narcissistic brother with the moronic girlfriend, because other people's absurdities do seem just that much more absurd and in some ways tolerable, b/c you know how absurd life is if your child is disabled. I wasn't remotely interested in her cad husband and didn't believe for one second she'd ever been in love with him, and alas that took up a goodly part of the book (yes, I know this is based on her own doomed marriage and autistic child--she even kept her initials and the number of syllables in her last name--perhaps she's sufficiently angry that she can't creditably portray her ex as having any redeeming qualities? And it's a funny enough revenge fantasy, in its way).