House Rules Book

A good solid 3 1/2 stars

I applaud Jodi Picoult for using her best-selling author position to educate people about Asperger's syndrome. She did extensive research and tried to present as much information as she could within the confines of a novel. At times this effort to educate interrupts the flow of the narrative, but I think she was striving for completeness. House Rules is a sort of "Primer on Asperger's" for people who may not otherwise seek out information on the condition. Picoult gives Jacob every possible symptom of Asperger's in its most extreme manifestation. So of course, Jacob isn't like a real life "aspie" you might meet. He's a composite---the better to help people recognize the various behaviors and behave compassionately toward the person displaying them.

Picoult also very effectively shows the impact on the entire family of a child with special needs. Henry, the absent father who walked out long ago because he couldn't deal with Jacob's situation. Emma, the mother who desperately loves her boy and sacrifices her entire selfhood to maintain Jacob's strict schedule. Theo, the "normal" younger brother who is often invisible to Emma and is treated by his peers as a sort of "freak by association" because of his brother. Jacob's needs always get priority, so Theo is usually left to fend for himself and finds secret ways of acting out to compensate for lack of parental attention.

Don't expect much from the "mystery" itself. If you've read a few Picoult books, you probably do like I do---scoff at the implausibilities and the truly lame stuff, but devour them all the same. The woman can write! I complain a lot about present tense writing, but Picoult is one of the few who can do it so well that I barely even notice it.

There's a lot of great humor in the book, much of it related to Jacob's Asperger behaviors. He's always quoting song lyrics and lines from movies because it helps to calm him or gives him something to say when he doesn't know an appropriate response. And the way he takes everything literally is sometimes hilarious. I never realized how much subtlety we assume in our communications that would be lost on a totally literal person. Jacob's attorney tells him to "pass me a note" if he needs a sensory break. So Jacob hands him a piece of paper that says "F#"(F sharp). Literally, a "note"!

I hope I've focused on the things Ms. Picoult did RIGHT, because this is a worthy book on a timely subject, and I really liked the characters. There were places where I was laughing and crying for them at the same time.

The thing Picoult did WRONG is the reason I can't go up to four stars. The ending sucketh! Big time. It felt like a huge cop-out and I don't understand what she was thinking. Don't we at least deserve an epilogue after we've invested so much in the characters? It's as if she said, "Okay, I've told you all you need to know about Asperger's syndrome, so I'm outta here."