Perhaps I can help on this point. You need to sweep away any images you have of autists. Every single one is different. Hence the difficulty of diagnosis, and the difficulty of effectively assessing treatments (and the proliferation of snake oil salesmen in the area - people will grasp at anything to make their child 'normal').I think, though, that this book does encapsulate a plausible autistic world view. It is one of attemting to sort order out of confusion, of trying to cope with too much information hitting you at the same time because those 'filters' don't work, and of attempting to cope with your situation by engaging activities which may seem strang eto an outsider, but perfectly natural to yourself. _________________________________________________________Il Sotto Seme La Neva

Hey Mad:Did we go to the same school?! That's the same definition of primes I was taught. However, I took algebra before 1986. Since the definition given above was published in 1986, perhaps it has changed?!

Mr. P,for the kid to be out of the house after midnight, I assumed that he had snuck out. Of course, we find out later where dad was...I, too found it strange that they took a 10 year old to the pokey. Agreed that it's weird they didn't know about his condition, or at least asked him where he lived before hauling him away, even though he slugged a cop.

MA: to ask everyone who's reading how they think the novel would differ if it weren't narrated from the point of view of its main character.It seems to me that there would not be much of a story if it was not told from the point of view of the child. To me, this book is not too much about the story itself, but how that story is told. The author 'reveals' things to us by the way the child experiences the world. Because the child experiences the world in an unusual way, we have an unusual story. It's what makes the book interesting!