Autism/Asperger's in Fiction

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What have you read? What's it about, and what did you think of it?

A few years ago, I picked up the novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time", by Mark Haddon. I heard about it from a passing reference in a BBC radio book show, and I bought it purely because of the Sherlock Holmes reference in the title. The main character's diagnosis is never specified, but it appears that he is on the spectrum.

I think the book is well-written and I enjoyed the story very much. I later read some critical remarks from Nick Hornby, whose son is autistic. In short, he felt that some of the main character's thinking was not believable given his condition. At the time, I had no real knowledge of Autism and had only heard of Asperger's in connection with the book. I sort of took his word for it and thought less of the novel.

However, since coming here and recognizing some AS qualities in myself, I've read more about Autism and AS. (Not to mention reading many postings from WP members.) So a few weeks ago, I re-read the book. I still don't really know how well the overall portrait of someone with Autism/AS hangs together, but I have learned that every individual is unique. I no longer find anything in the story that I can't accept, so I'm back to saying that it's a well-written and enjoyable novel.

JSB

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, by Reif Larsen.

I am thoroughly enjoying this novel, and while there's no mention of it, the main character totally has Asperger's! He's wonderful - a 12 year old cartographer on the journey of a lifetime. I like this book even better than the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, to which I feel it is quite similar.

Michael Palmer's "The Second Opinion". The main character is a female doctor with AS, and it's while reading this book during the past summer that it dawned on me that this fictional character and I had a lot in common.

Not any that come to mind... But before i found out I had Aspergers, I found that my characters where often, unintentionally, Aspies. I think I was putting a bit of myself in my short stories!