Jaiyana Samji/Staff reporter
A heartwarming novel by Richard Powers, bewilderment shows the ups and downs of having a child with autism. Robin Byrne, a nine-year-old boy with ASD, OCD, and ADHD struggles to fit in with his classmates as he never really felt the same as his peers. His life only got harder after his mother died in a car accident when he was 7. The story is written from the point of view of Theo Byrne, an astrobiologist, and a single father to Robin. Theo doesn’t fully believe that autism is a real or at least that his child has it. He refuses to put his nine-year-old on medication, no matter how many people tell him he should.
“I never believed the diagnosis the doctors settled on my son. When a condition gets three different names over as many decades, when it goes from non-existent to the country’s most commonly diagnosed childhood disorder in one generation, when two different physicians want to prescribe three different medications, there’s something wrong” – Theo Byrne
While Theo refuses to except that his child has autism, he does recognize that there is a problem. When Robin almost gets expelled from the 3rd grade for smashing his best friends face with a thermos, Theo is forced to seek a solution to their problem. Still, he refuses to turn to drugs and instead seeks out an old friend of his deceased wife to help him out. Robin is very smart for his age and follows his father’s footsteps with his interest in outer space.
Robin’s mom, Alyssa was a kindhearted woman who was always willing to stand up for those that didn’t have the ability to stand up for themselves, especially animals. Robin is quite like his mother with his love for animals, so much so that he spent weeks painting endangered species to sell at a farmers’ market so he could raise money for one of his mother’s charities.
This book is an amazing read for anyone who is interested in seeing how autism really effects people’s lives. The story touches on so many different issues and emotions, it shows you how truly difficult it is to go through the things that robin did. While the story shows some of the disadvantages of having autism, ADHD, and OCD it also shows how amazingly interesting the brain of someone with these disorders can be. Powers put a lot of emotion into this novel, which is why it is so great and can be quite relatable for many people. In Canada, at least 1 in 50 children and youth aged 1-17 are diagnosed with autism as of 2019 according to autismalience.ca. As of 2022, five to nine percent of adolescence in Canada have ADHD (cbc.ca), and 1 in 100 children are diagnosed with OCD (beyondocd.org). This shows just how many people are affected by these disorders and would be able to relate to some the stuff written in the novel.
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