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A review by elliemcc11
Love Anthony by Lisa Genova
3.0
Probably would rate this closer to 4*
This is the tale of 2 women - Beth, a writer, who is experiencing marriage difficulties, and Olivia, the mother of a recently deceased child. Olivia's son, Anthony, had autism and was non-verbal, and died on an epileptic seizure. The women meet on Nantucket when Olivia photographs Beth's family. Beth has decided to try writing again and the story of a boy with autism who collects white rocks is what she writes. She writes the book from the viewpoint of nonverbal Anthony, and in a sense uses it as therapy for her own marriage problems.
Much of this book I liked but the slightly mystical 'Anthony speaking / voicing his life to Beth' and the sheer coincidences of the stories (which enabled the novel to be written by Beth) were a little far-fetched for me. I appreciate someone might see a character and write a story based on them but to be so accurate as to depict and entire life, I'm not so sure. I realize that the author, Genova, was using this as a means to connect the characters but...
This is the tale of 2 women - Beth, a writer, who is experiencing marriage difficulties, and Olivia, the mother of a recently deceased child. Olivia's son, Anthony, had autism and was non-verbal, and died on an epileptic seizure. The women meet on Nantucket when Olivia photographs Beth's family. Beth has decided to try writing again and the story of a boy with autism who collects white rocks is what she writes. She writes the book from the viewpoint of nonverbal Anthony, and in a sense uses it as therapy for her own marriage problems.
Much of this book I liked but the slightly mystical 'Anthony speaking / voicing his life to Beth' and the sheer coincidences of the stories (which enabled the novel to be written by Beth) were a little far-fetched for me. I appreciate someone might see a character and write a story based on them but to be so accurate as to depict and entire life, I'm not so sure. I realize that the author, Genova, was using this as a means to connect the characters but...