House Rules by Jodi Picoult

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I finished reading this novel yesterday and I'm going to return it to my local library later today. I would very much like to know the opinions of other people who have read it. Here is a synopsis of it: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6614960-house-rules .

It is the first book by Jodi Picoult I have read. Although I enjoyed it I have criticisms of it. Picoult piled all the symptoms of Asperger's syndrome on Jacob Hunt. She has tried to be sympathetic to Aspies and in the Acknowledgements she states that she "spoke with numerous people who have personal experience with Asperger's syndrome". Above all, she expresses her deep gratitude to Jess Watsky - a teen with Asperger's.

I guessed how Jess Ogilvy died a long way before the ending.

I wonder if Emma Hunt, Jacob's mother, has autistic traits. From a chapter narrated by Theo Hunt:

The novel is interspersed with real-life criminal case studies. Case 11: My Brother's Keeper is a two page summary at the end of the novel of the events surrounding the death of Jess Ogilvy. The narrator refers to Jacob Hunt. The last line is "I'd do it all over again." I think that Jacob is the 'I' in that line.

My mom reads that author, I'll have to see if she already has that one or not!

Despite how over the top it was, I enjoyed reading it. Then my friend's guardian (who has something against me) stole it from me and hid it. I would read it again, if I had it.

I found it terrifying as I'd have coped even worse in that situation than Jacob, despite being overall higher functioning (he didn't have my specific issues with authority figures). I'd probably either have attempted suicide, gone catatonic or committed assault during the jail time.

I quite enjoyed it. Jodi is a master at picking the most controversial topics in society and writing a heavily character driven story surrounding it. It's a formula like most of her other books, which she does rather well and is quite interesting although a little predictable and repetitive. Like most media forms I hope people don't use it as a basis for what aspies are like in general. I think if you polled a bunch of people with AS most would know what Jacob did was wrong, even if they had a similar special interest (intentionally trying to be vague incase people are reading this thread and haven't read the book).

I hope you don't mind my reviving this thread, but I've been in despair over Jodi Picoult's House Rules. I've read it 3 times in a row (library book) and then downloaded it to my kindle but didn't finish the 4th time.

My 1st reading, I thought, "How does she know?" because I saw myself - even traits I hadn't noticed - in Jacob.

The 2nd reading, I twigged what was wrong with my siblings, they were like Theo, whose life was ruined because his sib has AS - only mine avoid me.

The 3rd time - I forget.

But this whole week, I'm sitting here seeing that there is no way Jacob could ever have a decent life unless he's got somebody to create one for him (his mom) - and so should I give up? I have worked so hard these last 5 years, getting a Dx, finding therapy, etc. I'm still worried that I won't be accepted in a book club - should I even try?

My neighbours don't want my dog playing with their dogs - it's an apartment bldg. See, I thought we could leave our doors open for half an hour and let the dogs wander in and out - Wrong! I asked a guy coming back with his dogs and his wife hit the roof - she thought I was hitting on her husband! Never mind I'm 20 years older twice as fat. It took a while for me to figure out that they assumed I wanted people to wander in and out. No, I thought I could read while the dogs hang out. But that's not NT I guess.

Look, really, how hopeless is this?

I thought it was okay. She definitely used almost every single Asperger trait and blew it up over the top the best she could. I was a bit disappointed with the ending as I would have liked to find out what happened at the court trial.

It's a fairly accurate portrayal of the way society sees us. Won't say whether Jacob himself is "accurate" or not, 'cause, well...

...if you've met one Aspie, you've met one Aspie.

Best line from the book: "It's a neurotypical world, Ms. Hunt. We're just taking up space in it."

Sad but true.

Is that something we're fighting to change??

Is that something we should be fighting to change??

Is that something that can even be changed??

These are good questions. Worth pulling a thread back from the bottom of Page 2, IMO. Answers, anyone????

I just started reading House Rules today. Ordinarily not my kind of novel, really, but my mom read it and I wanted to be able to discuss it with her.

So far, it has made me laugh out loud because I was so happy that someone else (however fictional) liked to organize things by ROY G BIV and had bad boundaries about organizing someone else's clothes closet. hehe I was just happy to relate to this type of thing, and see it on the page.

In regards to Jacob's mother babying him, that does make sense, and I think my own parents have also been guilty of taking that approach. I also related to not getting a driver's liscence because I just got my learner's permit over and over until after I was 18 and after I got my liscence I still didn't actually use it even though I had passed the test. etc.

I read parts of it and honestly I must say I won't be reading the whole book. It upset me and I didn't like how it portrayed us as sociopaths and how we can commit crimes due to special interests and how cold hearted we are due to no empathy and not being able to put ourselves in peoples shoes and how we don't care about anyone nonetheless and it's always about us when we do show care for others. Just one of my sensitive spots where my emotions get in the way. I don't know if that is what the author thought or if she was just doing the way we are portrayed when it comes to getting in trouble with the law. But it also showed in it how AS is deeply misunderstood and people read about it and see all the traits as normal so no wonder they find AS as a BS condition and why some people think they have it even though they don't.

I also didn't like the ending but I guess the author wanted us to imagine what happens at the end and leave it up for us to decide.

I agree with what you said in the beginning of your post- that House Rules isn't necessarily a good depiction of Asperger's, but it might be a really good depiction of how Aspies are seen by the neurotypical world. Jodi Picoult meticulously researches all of her novels and while her stories need some dramatics, I don't think she puts things in her book that she doesn't find realistic in some way.

In her book "The Tenth Circle", there are scenes that take place in Alaska (if not the Tenth Circle, then one of her books) and Jodi actually spent time in Alaska before writing those scenes. Her need to understand the environment she's writing about in detail is the reason why many of her books are set in New England, since that's where she lives. (I wish the locations of her books varied more; it's one of the reasons they kind of blur a bit in my mind.)

Anyway, I didn't really know anything about autism/Asperger's when I first read House Rules; now I'm really interested to read it again because of this discussion.