IT’s MY CHOICE

As what I have written in my main blog, the first time I read a book with an autistic character (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon) involved in the story, I wasn’t impressed. And had I knew that “Daniel Isn’t Talking” by Marti Leimbach has something to do with autism, maybe, I haven’t touched it at all. But now, I’m glad that I bought it even though the book itself is expensive.

The Marsh family were astounded to hear that their son, Daniel is suffering from autism. Melanie and Stephen’s son will never be normal. He will never experience the things that a normal child would have. He will never have the chance to mingle with other kids, learn the wonders of the world inside the four corners of the classroom. All he knows is that the whole world is his.

Because of this, the marriage of Melanie and Stephen started to collapse like a building with poor foundation. Problems suddenly arise from nowhere, severing their relationship further. They argued every now and then. Stephen wants Daniel to be sent to a special school for autistic children but Melanie thinks otherwise.

Thanks to Andy and his unorthodox ideas. Melanie and Andy persevered hard to teach Daniel how to speak. They wanted to make Daniel’s life as normal as much as possible. They thought him how to speak. At first, Daniel could only manage to say a word in one go, but as they progressed, these one word sentences expanded to two, three, four, and even five words. They’ve also worked hard to teach him how to use the commode and even behave properly in the supermarket. Besides all of these, Andy became the comfort of Melanie while her husband is away, thinking of what would have become of their dwindling relationship.

Towards the end of the book, Melanie realized that she has fallen in love with Andy. But what about Stephen? The person that she married and promised to that only death would separate them? She has tried to save their sinking marriage countless times. And now, it’s Stephen’s turn to save it. Will he be able to reconcile with Melanie?

*****

What I liked about the book is that aside from the drama of the story, and as how the People had put it, the book was “… leavened with humor.” Because of this, reading the book didn’t make me bored. And because of the plot was interesting it made me crave to read and finish it.