What I Just Finished: House Rules

Jodi Picoult used to be my favorite author, but the more I read, the more she stays the same.  All of her books are about an ethical dilemma of some sort, requiring the reader to think and wrestle with her beliefs, and that I like.  I find her books to all have the same sort of rhythm which I feel is a bit redundant.  After reading a few of her novels, they've all started to seem familiar even though I don't know the plot.


All that said, I'm still going to read Picoult's novels.  She always sucks me into the story, and her books are quick and easy to read even though they leave me thinking for long after I've put them down.

House Rules is one of her newer novels.  It's about an eighteen year old boy named Jacob who has Asperger's.  The novel begins by highlighting Jacob's daily life and obsessions, as well as the struggles of his mom, Emma, and his younger brother, Theo.  Then, Jacob is accused of murdering his social skills tutor, Jess.   I won't tell you if he did it or not, you'll have to find out.   :)

I've been interested in Asperger's and autism for a long time. The only trouble I really had with Picoult's descriptions of Jacob and the way that Asperger's affected him is that she took almost all of the symptoms and shoved them on Jacob's character with incredible intensity.  In my, albeit limited, experience with studying Asperger's (for a semester in graduate school) and tutoring or knowing a few different people with Asperger's it seems that Picoult's character was a bit over exaggerated for where she placed him on the autism spectrum.

Also, there are references, quite a few, that suggest a link between Asperger's and autism to vaccinations.  While some parents wholeheartedly hold on to the belief that immunizations directly resulted in their child's placement on the autism spectrum, most scientists and doctors disagree.  I think Picoult brought up this issue in a way that was a bit irresponsible, as she never presented facts from the other side of the argument.

Other than that, I thought she did a wonderful job highlighting the struggles of parents and siblings of people on the autism spectrum, as well as the person who struggles with the autism himself.  By writing from the point of view of each character, she highlighted vantage points that other characters could not see, many times pointing to how society could be (and should be) more accepting of people with autism and their families.

All in all, it was a good read.

Happy reading,