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jwoodsum's review
3.0
I wanted to like this book more than I did. the main character, the teenage autisitc Marcelo, is pretty endearing, but the plot seemed cumbersom at times.
jwinchell's review
5.0
I read this in January 2010 also and I love it even more now. It's the OPRF freshman summer read- complex, quirky, challenging, lovely.
jessdlibrarian's review
5.0
Marcelo in the Real World is an innovative and touching story about a young man with an "autism-like" condition whose father believes he needs to try to function in the "real world." This story is definitely realistic and frighteningly so. Marcelo's father doesn't seem to understand him, and it seems as if he doesn't try. In fact, it turns out that he is embarrassed by his son's differences.
I found the characters in this story to be fully formed and genuine. Each of them has their own backstory and reasons behind the way they act -- Jasmine, Marcelo's parents, Wendell -- whether those reasons are excusable is another story. Wendell seems to be just a jerk, but perhaps he's only seeking his father's approval. Jasmine made a stupid mistake, but she regrets it constantly. There are many deep psychological issues that can explain what she did and what she does in the story. For example, her mother died when she was young, and she was left to fill the position in the household. She had to take care of her alcoholic father and older brother. Jonah explains that “after [her mother] died, Jasmine became a little mother for the family real quick” (243). After escaping to Boston she craved freedom and love and found it where she could.
The most thrilling and touching part of the story is how much Marcelo grows and transforms throughout the summer. He grows from being caring very little about people in general (part of Asperger’s, which is likely his unspecified condition) to caring so much about a girl he doesn’t even know that he will do anything he can manage to help her. He learns a lot in one summer – more than he ever would have learned at the stable. So, I believe that his father might have been right to force him to step out of his comfort zone and into the “real world.”
I really wonder where the story would go after this. I’d love to read a sequel or hear from the author to know if Jasmine and Marcelo would become a couple or just be friends.
I found the characters in this story to be fully formed and genuine. Each of them has their own backstory and reasons behind the way they act -- Jasmine, Marcelo's parents, Wendell -- whether those reasons are excusable is another story. Wendell seems to be just a jerk, but perhaps he's only seeking his father's approval. Jasmine made a stupid mistake, but she regrets it constantly. There are many deep psychological issues that can explain what she did and what she does in the story. For example, her mother died when she was young, and she was left to fill the position in the household. She had to take care of her alcoholic father and older brother. Jonah explains that “after [her mother] died, Jasmine became a little mother for the family real quick” (243). After escaping to Boston she craved freedom and love and found it where she could.
The most thrilling and touching part of the story is how much Marcelo grows and transforms throughout the summer. He grows from being caring very little about people in general (part of Asperger’s, which is likely his unspecified condition) to caring so much about a girl he doesn’t even know that he will do anything he can manage to help her. He learns a lot in one summer – more than he ever would have learned at the stable. So, I believe that his father might have been right to force him to step out of his comfort zone and into the “real world.”
I really wonder where the story would go after this. I’d love to read a sequel or hear from the author to know if Jasmine and Marcelo would become a couple or just be friends.
mbrandmaier's review
3.0
Marcelo really grows as a person during this novel. I am very impressed by his bravery when it comes to doing the right thing: many in his place would not act the same way.
mslmdavis's review
4.0
I absolutely loved it! I didn't want it to end. Marcelo reminded me of the main character in Adam (the movie) at times.
marleah_a's review
3.0
This young adult book features Marcelo, a 17-year-old boy who has a diagnosis somewhere on the autism spectrum. He describes hearing a kind of music, mixed with emotion, that comes from his head--or rather, that he feels a part of. Marcelo has a structured, happy life going to a special school and working with Haflinger horses, as well as living in a tree house in his family's backyard. This all changes when his father makes a deal with him: Marcelo will work at his father's law firm for the summer, and if he is successful, he will return to his school in the fall. However, if Marcelo does not succeed, he will then go to public school. His father is convinced that he needs to spend more time around "normal" people. While working at the law firm, he meets new friends, has new experiences, and realizes that the world is not as black and white as he once thought.
I liked this book, although it wasn't as good as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Marcelo's voice as someone with something like Asperger's Syndrome was fairly accurate. I work with some kiddos diagnosed somewhere on the autism spectrum, and I could see some of those quirks in Marcelo. I also see some parents who are something like Marcelo's. The book takes on a bit of legal-thriller later on, which served well as Marcelo's introduction to the ways of the world. However, the book ended somewhat abruptly. I didn't feel as though there were any real resolution, and there was still so much left to Marcelo's story. Maybe that is the point though -- life doesn't really give us much resolution, and it just continues on.
I liked this book, although it wasn't as good as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Marcelo's voice as someone with something like Asperger's Syndrome was fairly accurate. I work with some kiddos diagnosed somewhere on the autism spectrum, and I could see some of those quirks in Marcelo. I also see some parents who are something like Marcelo's. The book takes on a bit of legal-thriller later on, which served well as Marcelo's introduction to the ways of the world. However, the book ended somewhat abruptly. I didn't feel as though there were any real resolution, and there was still so much left to Marcelo's story. Maybe that is the point though -- life doesn't really give us much resolution, and it just continues on.
meghan111's review
4.0
This book follows Marcelo, who has something like Asperger's, through the summer before his senior year of high school. Marcelo hears music in his head, refers to himself in the third person, and lives in a treehouse. He has always gone to a special school, where he is allowed to learn at his own pace and to spend lots of time tending the school's horses. Now, his father demands that he spend the summer helping at his father's law office, or he will have to go to a regular high school in the fall. Marcelo reluctantly accepts the deal, and the book follows him over the course of the summer.
kellerko's review
3.0
An interesting book written from the perspective of a young autistic man. He is forced to work in his father’s law office over a summer and learns quite a bit about life. It was painful for me to read about his father, forcing him to mask his autism, but I enjoyed seeing his growth as his world expanded and he began making independent decisions.
sandin954's review against another edition
3.0
Perfectly pleasant story of a young man with Asperger's who is challenged by his father to work in the mail room at the law firm his father heads so he can get some experience with the real world. Marcelo's voice is really well done throughout the entire book but I felt most of the other characters were a bit slight and wished the author had a lighter touch at certain points during the book. I listened to the audio version read by Lincoln Hoppe who really excelled with Marcelo's first person narration.