Novel with autistic woman as protagonist

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The novel is The Language of Others by Clare Morrall, published by Sceptre, London, 2008. Here is information about it on the publishers website: http://www.hodder.co.uk/books/work.aspx?WorkID=42661 . I read it on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

The novel tells the story of Jessica Fontaine. Jessica grew up in Audlands Hall, a dilapidated country house in the English midlands. She loved to roller-skate for hours alone up and down its corridors, contented and safe. She talked little and did not look at people. When she was a young child her mother suggested to their doctor that Jessica might be autistic. But he told her that if she had seen the kind of autistic children he had to treat, she would not have suggested anything so ridiculous. This would have have been about 1970 in the time frame of the novel.

The child Jessica was mesmerised by the chandelier with fifty candles in Audlands Hall. One day her parents gave a party to which they invited musicians to play classical music.

That evening Jessica told her mother that she wanted piano lessons. Her mother also enrolled her daughter in ballet lessons. For the whole of the first term "Jessica stood against a wall and refused to join in." Then some months later her mother saw through the doorway of Jessica's bedroom, jessica giving Harriet, her younger sister, ballet lessons. When Jessica saw her mother she stopped. She was "only any good when she could dance at trhe back of the class where she thought she would be unobserved. If anyone's attention weas focused on her, she became clumsy and self-conscious.

Jessica can not stand wearing lipstick. She takes things literally and does not get jokes. She has mild face blindness. In her late teens she reflected on her plans for marriage and leaving home. [/quote]
I wasn't sure how I felt about growing up or getting married and leaving. I had always seemed to be wandering without a map through a confusing and unexplained world. [/quote]

Jessica married and had a baby boy named Joel. One afternoon in a conversation with Connie, her mother, Connie talked about Jessica as a baby.

Joel also could not stand being picked up and held.

That looks like a good book. The part where she holds her hands in front of the candles and watches the light reminds me of myself. I am definitely going to try and find it. Have you read A Dangerous Woman? The protagonist is clearly autistic though the book never specifies that. They made a film adaption with Debra Winger.

Continuation of my previous message about The Language of Others, which I posted because I did not want to lose it like I did yesterday, when I after I had spent about an hour and a half typing a message on the same book, I was unable to post it because of very heavy traffic on Wrong Planet, and the library I was in waas about to close.

Joel, Jessica's son, had now reached the age of tewnty-three. He was a computer games designer with his own business. When he was a school child "he worked out the exact number of minutes allocated to playtime every day, the hours he spent in school, the days of holiday in a year." He had acute hearing and was upset by sudden loud sounds. "He approached life as if it was a puzzle to be teased apart and analysed."

One day Jessica was taking Joel to school.

Jessica reflects on her childhood.



Joel has become engaged to a woman called Alice. Jessica looks forward to living alone:

One day Alice tells Jessica that Joel has Asperger's syndrome.

Jessica is sceptical because "Joel went to an ordinary school. He earns a living. Alice explains about the autistic spectrum:

Jessica asks:

Alice replies:

Jessica remembers the times when Joel "refused to wear anything except his blue trousers, when he turned away as if I wasn't there."

The conversation between Alice and Jessica about Joel having Asperger's syndrome takes about three and half pages in the book. Of course it was written for its readers.

To be continued in my next message.

Aimless asked:

No I have not. I had not heard of it until you mentioned it. I will look out for it in my local library.

Continuation of my review of The Language of Others.

Some months later Jessica and Philip her cousin, who bullied her when they were children, are talking in Audlands Hall. Philip tells Jessica that she has changed:

Later when Joel and Alice are married, Jessica reflects:

On the last page, but not the last paragraph, Alice thinks:

I really enjoyed the novel. It is a sensitive, perceptive and compassionate portrayal of two autistic persons - Jessica and Joel. Neither of whom are diagnosed professionally. Jessica self-diagnosis and Joel is diagnosed by Alice.

Re; A Dangerous Woman-here's a clip of the movie they made. They describe her as "slow" but this was made before they considered how broad the spectrum could be. The movie makes a much more sympathetic portrayal than the book.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SIALsXr50Q[/youtube]

Wow. I was moved to tears just from the clip you posted. I have GOT to get that film!

It's really a powerful film-When it first came out there was an interview with someone connected to the film and the person said she was a dangerous woman because she couldn't lie. And Gabriel Byrne-well, what can I say? This film also has the only truly realistic sex scene I've ever seen in a movie. Both sweet and awkward.

Here is a blog post about an interview with Clare Morrall, the author of The Language of Others: http://www.danutakean.com/blog/?p=301 .

She said:

She also talks about her novel here: http://www.foyles.co.uk/addfeature05.asp#mora .

She says:

She ends by saying:

I would guess that Clare Morrall is on the borderline of the autistic spectrum - the broader autism phenotype.

Here are four reviews by readers of the novel: http://www.librarything.com/work/4193837/reviews .

I really have to read that book. I wonder if it's in the USA?

The female protagonist of the screenplay in my sig has some traits of Asperger's syndrome, FYI.

Spokane Girl ,
The Language of Others is available on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Language-Others-C ... 0340896655 .