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The Boy Who Fell to Earth
Meet Merlin. He's Lucy's bright, beautiful son -- who just happens to be autistic. Since Merlin's father left them in the lurch shortly after his diagnosis, Lucy has made Merlin the centre of her world. Struggling with the joys and tribulations of raising her eccentrically adorable yet challenging child, (if only Merlin came with operating instructions) Lucy doesn't have room for any other man in her life.
By the time Merlin turns ten, Lucy is seriously worried that the Pope might start ringing her up for tips on celibacy, so resolves to dip a poorly pedicured toe back into the world of dating. Thanks to Merlin's candour and quirkiness, things don't go quite to plan... Then, just when Lucy's resigned to a life of singledom once more, Archie -- the most imperfectly perfect man for her and her son -- lands on her doorstep. But then, so does Merlin's father, begging for forgiveness and a second chance. Does Lucy need a real father for Merlin -- or a real partner for herself?
By the time Merlin turns ten, Lucy is seriously worried that the Pope might start ringing her up for tips on celibacy, so resolves to dip a poorly pedicured toe back into the world of dating. Thanks to Merlin's candour and quirkiness, things don't go quite to plan... Then, just when Lucy's resigned to a life of singledom once more, Archie -- the most imperfectly perfect man for her and her son -- lands on her doorstep. But then, so does Merlin's father, begging for forgiveness and a second chance. Does Lucy need a real father for Merlin -- or a real partner for herself?
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
75 people are currently reading
925 people want to read
About the author
Kathy Lette
62 books248 followersKathy Lette divides her time between being a full time writer,
demented mother (now there's a tautology) and trying to find a shopping trolley that doesn't have a clubbed wheel.
Kathy first achieved succés de scandale as a teenager with the novel Puberty Blues, now a major motion picture.
After several years as a singer with the Salami Sisters and a newspaper columnist in Sydney and New York (collected in the book "Hit and Ms") and as a television sitcom writer for Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles, her novels, "Puberty Blues" (1979) "Girls Night Out" (1988), "The Llama Parlour" (1991), "Foetal Attraction" (1993), "Mad Cows" (1996),"Altar Ego" (1998) "Nip'N'Tuck" (2001), "Dead Sexy" (2003) and "How To Kill Your Husband (and other handy household hints)" (2006) became international best-sellers. Kathy Lette's plays include "Grommits", "Wet Dreams", "Perfect Mismatch" and "I'm So Happy For You I Really Am".
She lives in London with her husband and two children and has just finished a stint as writer in Residence at London's Savoy Hotel.
Kathy says that the best thing about being a writer is that you get to work in your jammies all day, drink heavily on the job and have affairs and call it research! (Although her husband says he should have the affair as it would give her a better book!)
demented mother (now there's a tautology) and trying to find a shopping trolley that doesn't have a clubbed wheel.
Kathy first achieved succés de scandale as a teenager with the novel Puberty Blues, now a major motion picture.
After several years as a singer with the Salami Sisters and a newspaper columnist in Sydney and New York (collected in the book "Hit and Ms") and as a television sitcom writer for Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles, her novels, "Puberty Blues" (1979) "Girls Night Out" (1988), "The Llama Parlour" (1991), "Foetal Attraction" (1993), "Mad Cows" (1996),"Altar Ego" (1998) "Nip'N'Tuck" (2001), "Dead Sexy" (2003) and "How To Kill Your Husband (and other handy household hints)" (2006) became international best-sellers. Kathy Lette's plays include "Grommits", "Wet Dreams", "Perfect Mismatch" and "I'm So Happy For You I Really Am".
She lives in London with her husband and two children and has just finished a stint as writer in Residence at London's Savoy Hotel.
Kathy says that the best thing about being a writer is that you get to work in your jammies all day, drink heavily on the job and have affairs and call it research! (Although her husband says he should have the affair as it would give her a better book!)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 299 reviews
September 20, 2012
Reading this book is like being cornered and repeatedly splattered with paint balls! The one liners are RELENTLESS. Oh for an assertive editor!
I waited patiently on a long list of library requests to read this and was bewildered and disappointed. Great subject - dealing with an autistic child but what strange execution. I have worked with Autistic young adults for a decade and they do not let out this stream of thoughts and ideas like Merlin does. They usually quietly struggle to interpret and function in a bewildering world.
I loved the character of Archie but, as another reviewer has noted, most of the dialogue is interchangeable between characters.Disappointing.
I waited patiently on a long list of library requests to read this and was bewildered and disappointed. Great subject - dealing with an autistic child but what strange execution. I have worked with Autistic young adults for a decade and they do not let out this stream of thoughts and ideas like Merlin does. They usually quietly struggle to interpret and function in a bewildering world.
I loved the character of Archie but, as another reviewer has noted, most of the dialogue is interchangeable between characters.Disappointing.
February 5, 2017
The Boy Who Fell To Earth is the thirteenth novel by Australian author, Kathy Lette. Lucy’s marriage to Jeremy is perfect: he’s rich, intelligent and attractive; she’s witty, funny and attractive. But when their son Merlin is diagnosed, at the age of three years, as autistic, Jeremy runs off with his lover, a buxom TV chef, and the divorce is poisonous. Lucy is left, financially disadvantaged, to raise her special needs boy with minimal support.
This may all sound very depressing, except that Lette has such a clever turn of phrase that the book is filled with humour, much of it, of course, black. As Lucy describes her frustration in dealings with the bureaucracy of the social service world and the education system, as well as single parenthood of a special needs child, she elicits many laughs and the odd lump in the throat. Merlin is definitely the star of this book: more of the boy and less of his mother’s sex life (or bemoaning the lack thereof) would have gained this tale a higher rating. A funny and very witty read.
This may all sound very depressing, except that Lette has such a clever turn of phrase that the book is filled with humour, much of it, of course, black. As Lucy describes her frustration in dealings with the bureaucracy of the social service world and the education system, as well as single parenthood of a special needs child, she elicits many laughs and the odd lump in the throat. Merlin is definitely the star of this book: more of the boy and less of his mother’s sex life (or bemoaning the lack thereof) would have gained this tale a higher rating. A funny and very witty read.
March 21, 2012
Very disappointed, unfortunately (and I don't say that too often, do I?). The focus of the book settled on the mother's struggle, rather than the son's condition (the son was diagnosed with Asperger's). Of course I understood her problems, but she lacked my sympathy. She was incapable of responding to others normally, every aside and response was ironic and sarcastic (albeit sometimes amusing). Her snark was exaggerated. The education authority's inability to pick up the boy's condition was remarkable considering he displayed obvious signs. This meant the poor boy was submitted to a main-stream education for twelve years which must have been a nightmare of failures and bullying, despite his obvious intelligence (are teachers so blind?). The mother also subjected him to situations which he obviously wasn't equipped to cope with, with devastating results. I'd rather have read a book about the boy's development, his successes rather than anecdotes about his behaviour. This book in no way gives encouragement to parents of children with Asperger's.
October 1, 2013
When I first heard about this book, I had high hopes for it, as I have a daughter with high-functioning Asperger's. Though admittedly Kathy Lette's novels have never really interested me much - not my sort of reading choice. I wish I had followed my first impression of her work rather than give this a chance, unfortunately.
The story follows Lucy, the single mother of Asperboy Merlin. It traces their abandonment by Merlin's natural father and Lucy's exploits, or should I say 'sexploits' in her attempts to get back into the dating game, spurred on crudely by her globe-trotting widowed mother and her sister. The aim is no doubt to show the trials of raising a child on the autistic spectrum, and the particular difficulties of being a single parent, and Lette uses humour to keep the subject matter getting a little too deep and depressing.
However, this is part of the weakness of this book. I like humour but Lette writes this as if she's composing a stand-up routine. There are similes, metaphors, wisecracks and sarcasm thrown into every paragraph, to the point that it stops the reader being able to identify or sympathise with Lucy and Merlin. This is a shame because I think a subject matter like this does require some gravity or pathos and not just cheap attempts at humour. I increasingly disliked everyone in this entire novel except poor Merlin. Anyone would have lost the plot living with them.
Additionally, if Lucy is meant to be portrayed as a sympathetic character, Lette has failed miserably. She talks constantly of how much she loves her son but doesn't properly inform her army of lovers of his difficulties and when he puts his foot in it and talks inappropriately she just feels embarrassed rather than protecting him. I have a child who at times blurts out things that are best left unsaid and try to gently steer her away from a topic of conversation if it is inappropriate. What we see with Lucy is her just sitting there and indulging her own embarrassment rather than shielding her son. How on earth people can accuse her of being overprotective of her son is beyond me.
I am sure a lot of people will like this book, particularly fans of Lette's, but as a sympathetic portrayal of living with autism it just doesn't cut the mustard, which is surprising as Lette's son has Asperger's. Perhaps the subject matter was too close to heart for her to write with any sincerity and meaning.
The story follows Lucy, the single mother of Asperboy Merlin. It traces their abandonment by Merlin's natural father and Lucy's exploits, or should I say 'sexploits' in her attempts to get back into the dating game, spurred on crudely by her globe-trotting widowed mother and her sister. The aim is no doubt to show the trials of raising a child on the autistic spectrum, and the particular difficulties of being a single parent, and Lette uses humour to keep the subject matter getting a little too deep and depressing.
However, this is part of the weakness of this book. I like humour but Lette writes this as if she's composing a stand-up routine. There are similes, metaphors, wisecracks and sarcasm thrown into every paragraph, to the point that it stops the reader being able to identify or sympathise with Lucy and Merlin. This is a shame because I think a subject matter like this does require some gravity or pathos and not just cheap attempts at humour. I increasingly disliked everyone in this entire novel except poor Merlin. Anyone would have lost the plot living with them.
Additionally, if Lucy is meant to be portrayed as a sympathetic character, Lette has failed miserably. She talks constantly of how much she loves her son but doesn't properly inform her army of lovers of his difficulties and when he puts his foot in it and talks inappropriately she just feels embarrassed rather than protecting him. I have a child who at times blurts out things that are best left unsaid and try to gently steer her away from a topic of conversation if it is inappropriate. What we see with Lucy is her just sitting there and indulging her own embarrassment rather than shielding her son. How on earth people can accuse her of being overprotective of her son is beyond me.
I am sure a lot of people will like this book, particularly fans of Lette's, but as a sympathetic portrayal of living with autism it just doesn't cut the mustard, which is surprising as Lette's son has Asperger's. Perhaps the subject matter was too close to heart for her to write with any sincerity and meaning.
July 7, 2012
As a mom of an 8 year old boy on the autistic spectrum, I could really relate to Lucy's constant anxiety about her son and how the rest of her life takes a back seat to being there for him. It also gave me insight as to what I am in for during his teenage years. Coincidentally, I am also an English teacher, like Lucy, so I related even more. Some readers said they felt she focused too much on how Merlin's condition affected her life but if you have never been there you cannot fathom how it really does take over your whole life. However, in the end you would never change a thing about your wonderful, quirky, special alien child. One thing I found annoying was how easily she accepted Jeremy back into her life, because one thing I have learned is that if my boy isn't acceptable to you, you can get knotted and never come back. This really was a light hearted, yet heart breaking read for me and I will recommend it to many because it is a wonderful way to educate people and create the much needed awareness around autism. Another book I recommend for these reasons is House Rules by Jodi Piccoult.
February 17, 2014
There's a line somewhere in the fourth chapter that sums up this authors writing style perfectly: words streamed out of him like traffic, a collision of stories and tangential, lateral lunacy.
I hated this book. The author writes like she's hypermanic. Each and every paragraph is jammed full of so many glib one liners, analogies and metaphors that it begins to lose all meaning. There were moments that I had to stop and ask myself what the fuck she was even talking about.
The main character is so bitter and sarcastic it's beyond a joke. It's honestly no wonder her husband left her. I found myself rolling my eyes at her twisted version of events and the onslaught of one liners that seemed to fall flat more often than not was just pitiful.
I stopped reading it. There just aren't enough reading hours in ones lifetime to waste on this shite.
I hated this book. The author writes like she's hypermanic. Each and every paragraph is jammed full of so many glib one liners, analogies and metaphors that it begins to lose all meaning. There were moments that I had to stop and ask myself what the fuck she was even talking about.
The main character is so bitter and sarcastic it's beyond a joke. It's honestly no wonder her husband left her. I found myself rolling my eyes at her twisted version of events and the onslaught of one liners that seemed to fall flat more often than not was just pitiful.
I stopped reading it. There just aren't enough reading hours in ones lifetime to waste on this shite.
February 12, 2013
Didn't actually finish it. Even though we were reading it for book club. Hated the style. Couldn't get passed the many awkward similes in the first chapter. It irked and irritated me too much. Just not my thing.
June 24, 2012
My Thoughts: I could write reams on why I enjoyed this book and there is so much that the blurb doesn’t tell you about the highs and lows of life with an autistic child as Lucy tries to raise her child and stay sane; and author Lucy Lette should know as her 21-year-old son, Julius, was diagnoses as having Asperger’s (high-functioning autism) when he was a toddler. In an interview Kathy said there is a lot of Julius in Merlin but the book is fiction and not a memoir. In amongst the hilarious one-liners and slap-stick skits are poignant statements such as “…Mothering a child on the autism spectrum is as easy as skewering banana custard to a mid-air boomerang…” said in jest but striking deep in the heart. There is also a standout scene that highlights the dangers these trusting children can get into as Merlin is waylaid by a paedophile in a nearby park – brought up to be polite and not ask questions he is ill-equipped to understand what was going on. Lucy battles with the education department to try and get her son into a special school – only to be told time and time again that her son was just naughty. Lucy also has to field questions from the literal mind of her son such as “…if there is a happy hour in a bar is there a sad hour?..” There were also some very hairy questions, usually at the most inappropriate times like telling his grand-mother that he had heard she had two faces so why she was wearing the face she had on today! I loved this book – I loved the humour, I loved the message. THE BOY WHO FELL TO EARTH goes a long way to understanding what the parents and carers must be going through and to help and encourage them rather than talk about them behind their backs.
March 27, 2012
There is no question in my mind that Puberty Blues by Kathy Lette is an important piece of modern Australian literature. And I did laugh out loud when I read Foetal Attraction and Mad Cows. I probably smiled during Dead Sexy and How to Kill Your Husband but I honestly can’t remember. After reading Lette’s latest release, The Boy Who Fell to Earth, I have resolved to leave Lette out of my reading future (re-readings of Puberty Blues excepted). You see, the problem is I’ve heard the jokes before. All of them.
Read my full review here - http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...
Read my full review here - http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...
July 23, 2012
I struggled between 2 and 3 stars for this book, and I’m sorry to say I didn’t really enjoy it though the basis of the plot was good!
The problem I had with it was the story centred around Lucy, Merlin’s mother, and her struggles to get herself a man, her hatred of her ex-husband, who deserted Merlin and Lucy when Merlin’s diagnosis was announced..and men in general, plus the continual sarcastic jokes, whatever the situation. The one-liners got a bit tedious after awhile.
I felt extremely sorry for Merlin, who was diagnosed with autism at a very young age, and then asperger’s as he got older. The major problems he had at school, and Lucy had getting the education system to actually acknowledge that he had a disability, instead of saying he was just ‘acting out, and naughty’, were heartbreaking.
I would have enjoyed more of a focus on Merlin, his life and struggles, his development, successes and achievements, as he was a likeable youngster, who gave trust easily and was betrayed continually.
The problem I had with it was the story centred around Lucy, Merlin’s mother, and her struggles to get herself a man, her hatred of her ex-husband, who deserted Merlin and Lucy when Merlin’s diagnosis was announced..and men in general, plus the continual sarcastic jokes, whatever the situation. The one-liners got a bit tedious after awhile.
I felt extremely sorry for Merlin, who was diagnosed with autism at a very young age, and then asperger’s as he got older. The major problems he had at school, and Lucy had getting the education system to actually acknowledge that he had a disability, instead of saying he was just ‘acting out, and naughty’, were heartbreaking.
I would have enjoyed more of a focus on Merlin, his life and struggles, his development, successes and achievements, as he was a likeable youngster, who gave trust easily and was betrayed continually.
July 28, 2012
Make no mistake, this is chick-lit. This is a Kathy Lette book. Folks expecting a deep analysis on life as the mother of a child with autism written by someone who knows will be disappointed. That is not to say that the book has no substance at all; the frustrations of being a parent of an autistic child are made plain but in some ways only scratch the surface. The truth would be too painful and that wouldn't be any fun to read!
Kathy Lette's style of amusing one-liners run through the book which could grate very quickly, but if you are used to this, it is not a massive problem - many of them are very funny! The story itself is proper chick-lit - girl seeks boy - with a little twistiness to make things interesting. I didn't much care about the outcome, but I did enjoy the ride! It is not great literature, but it passed the time nicely!
Kathy Lette's style of amusing one-liners run through the book which could grate very quickly, but if you are used to this, it is not a massive problem - many of them are very funny! The story itself is proper chick-lit - girl seeks boy - with a little twistiness to make things interesting. I didn't much care about the outcome, but I did enjoy the ride! It is not great literature, but it passed the time nicely!
October 20, 2016
At first I thought this sounded like a witty recounting of a mother of a boy on the autism spectrum. As it continued, though, the laugh-a-minute one liners started to grate (it turns out more is not always better…), as did the speech attributions of “he punned…”, “she joked…”, “they bantered…” etc, as did her recounting of her sexual exploits interspersed with her antipathy toward men. When her antipathy turned into adoration, things took even more of a downward slide.
I did enjoy the insights into life living with a child with Asperger’s and some of the ways that someone with Asperger’s can see the world so differently. 2.5★
I did enjoy the insights into life living with a child with Asperger’s and some of the ways that someone with Asperger’s can see the world so differently. 2.5★
October 25, 2012
A complete waste of time....I think Kathy Lette has used up every one liner she can possibly think of when writing this book.
The book attempts to show a mother who will do anything to protect her son from harm, yet gives him his own key to the house, lets him walk to and from school in which he constantly gets picked on and beaten up and a whole heap of other nonsense that contradicts the main focus of the book.
Kathy Lette's over sarcastic quips mixed with a boy suffering with Asperger's doesn't quite seem to do it for me. It is a total "Lette" down as far as my opinion is concerned.
The book attempts to show a mother who will do anything to protect her son from harm, yet gives him his own key to the house, lets him walk to and from school in which he constantly gets picked on and beaten up and a whole heap of other nonsense that contradicts the main focus of the book.
Kathy Lette's over sarcastic quips mixed with a boy suffering with Asperger's doesn't quite seem to do it for me. It is a total "Lette" down as far as my opinion is concerned.
October 21, 2017
Kathy Lette is known for her scandalous and hilarious chick lit, but turned her gaze toward the story of a mother raising a child on the autism spectrum - something she personally discusses in her own experiences with her son.
So while I was expecting the Lette humour, I was keen to know the insights she could provide - along with her trademark humour and accessibility, which would be a welcome break from many stories where a young person on the spectrum is just thrown in to make the story seem edgy.
Unfortunately, this book is seriously disappointing, mainly because the joking is absolutely relentless. I get that a positive attitude and finding humour is a good coping mechanism for a mother dealing with it all, but when the child being hospitalized is the only time there is a brief break from the one-liners, it's hard to really get into the story. Listening to it as an audiobook simply highlighted the fact that the narrative tone never shifts from, "Well, getting Merlyn to x is like y HAA HAA HAA HAA WHY AREN'T YOU LAUGHING"
I actually found myself rolling my eyes and at points shouting at the audiobook.
It's really hard to feel empathy for Lucy when she's barraging people with snarky joke after joke after joke and while she is making horrified overtures about the terrible and hideously inappropriate comments her son makes, she herself is saying obscene things to her mother-in-law whilst trying to help. A son who can't understand exaggeration or figurative speech hears nothing from his mother except loud exaltations about taking the next plane to Guantanamo Bay or saying he was brought to earth by aliens or the like.
(Something that seriously surprised and bothered me was a lot of the jokes were really dated - especially the ones about sex and gender relationships were things that were outdated even in the 90s.)
The thing that I personally don't like in a lot of "chick lit" books isn't so much romance - nothing wrong with that - but that so many of these stories have the getting of a man as the main goal, or the assumption that even if the main character has lost their job, home, is in serious trouble, getting a guy is consolation enough. What surprised me then was that this came in to play with the scenario of this story. Lucy struggles on against her situation completely alone and without support, but her mother drops everything to mind Merlin SOLELY for the reason of Lucy getting a man. When she does, her mother sods off.
Worse, the prospect of new romance and the return of her ex takes over the storyline completely and Merlin just sort of hovers in the periphery. When Merlin says something to young teenage girls so intrusive it makes them visibly upset, Lucy's only concern is that their distress kills her sexual prospects - which, given Lucy is a teacher, is just obscene. She complains endlessly about people judging her son, but sneers at her students who must be thugs; they have shaved heads and all.
What I found completely unnecessary was the inclusion of the husband's new "floozy" character. I thought it was snarky and cruel, and suspected Lette is having a final dig at Nigella Lawson (who Geoffrey Robertson left to take up with Lette.)
Lette does show some great insights - not just in the experience of raising a child with special needs, but also in negotiating the systems of education, special needs funding and other mechanisms that could make life easier but seem to be incapable of doing this - and in this I hope the book provides some relief to those going through this wringer of services and empathy for those fortunate to not be.
The most disappointing thing about this book is how easily it could have been better - Lette had the opportunity to write a good book that provided insight and help, while still being funny and even having romance - but instead she reamed off this mess.
So while I was expecting the Lette humour, I was keen to know the insights she could provide - along with her trademark humour and accessibility, which would be a welcome break from many stories where a young person on the spectrum is just thrown in to make the story seem edgy.
Unfortunately, this book is seriously disappointing, mainly because the joking is absolutely relentless. I get that a positive attitude and finding humour is a good coping mechanism for a mother dealing with it all, but when the child being hospitalized is the only time there is a brief break from the one-liners, it's hard to really get into the story. Listening to it as an audiobook simply highlighted the fact that the narrative tone never shifts from, "Well, getting Merlyn to x is like y HAA HAA HAA HAA WHY AREN'T YOU LAUGHING"
I actually found myself rolling my eyes and at points shouting at the audiobook.
It's really hard to feel empathy for Lucy when she's barraging people with snarky joke after joke after joke and while she is making horrified overtures about the terrible and hideously inappropriate comments her son makes, she herself is saying obscene things to her mother-in-law whilst trying to help. A son who can't understand exaggeration or figurative speech hears nothing from his mother except loud exaltations about taking the next plane to Guantanamo Bay or saying he was brought to earth by aliens or the like.
(Something that seriously surprised and bothered me was a lot of the jokes were really dated - especially the ones about sex and gender relationships were things that were outdated even in the 90s.)
The thing that I personally don't like in a lot of "chick lit" books isn't so much romance - nothing wrong with that - but that so many of these stories have the getting of a man as the main goal, or the assumption that even if the main character has lost their job, home, is in serious trouble, getting a guy is consolation enough. What surprised me then was that this came in to play with the scenario of this story. Lucy struggles on against her situation completely alone and without support, but her mother drops everything to mind Merlin SOLELY for the reason of Lucy getting a man. When she does, her mother sods off.
Worse, the prospect of new romance and the return of her ex takes over the storyline completely and Merlin just sort of hovers in the periphery. When Merlin says something to young teenage girls so intrusive it makes them visibly upset, Lucy's only concern is that their distress kills her sexual prospects - which, given Lucy is a teacher, is just obscene. She complains endlessly about people judging her son, but sneers at her students who must be thugs; they have shaved heads and all.
What I found completely unnecessary was the inclusion of the husband's new "floozy" character. I thought it was snarky and cruel, and suspected Lette is having a final dig at Nigella Lawson (who Geoffrey Robertson left to take up with Lette.)
Lette does show some great insights - not just in the experience of raising a child with special needs, but also in negotiating the systems of education, special needs funding and other mechanisms that could make life easier but seem to be incapable of doing this - and in this I hope the book provides some relief to those going through this wringer of services and empathy for those fortunate to not be.
The most disappointing thing about this book is how easily it could have been better - Lette had the opportunity to write a good book that provided insight and help, while still being funny and even having romance - but instead she reamed off this mess.
October 22, 2013
I hated this book, from the pathetic beginning to the tedious end. I literally despised every.single.character in this godawful book, from the desperate, witless, pathetic Lucy, the misogynist, vulgar Alfie, Jeremy the prat.. Oh and everyone else, even Merlin made me want to bang my own head off the ground!! Seriously, what is with the authors need to make every damn sentence into a comedy sketch?! None of it was funny, it was a frustrating and desperate read and lacked amusement! Is this what people think of single mothers? That we have this undying need for a man in our lives, a father figure for our kids, that we jump at the first Neanderthal?! Utterly insulting! And what was with the schools disregard to the fact that the kid had Aspergers?! Everything about this books haunts me, needless to say I devoured the person who bought it for me and informed her it was 'the biggest pile of sh**e' I ever read. Well, since Jilly Coopers 'Jump'. I would never recommend it, disapointing and insulting to people living with Aspergers in their life.
May 3, 2016
this is pure shit Kathy take it back
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January 9, 2026Prep for an In Convo with Kathy Lette in Feb. A woman tries to pull her life back together when her husband leaves her after their son gets an Autism diagnosis. Absolutely roasts a certain well known TV Chef.
September 25, 2022
Very funny language hehe
May 25, 2015
Full of ableist jokes, a woman who shouldn't be a mother to anyone, and a stuck-up family who'll pay to get rid of an autistic child, The Boy Who Fell to Earth has to be one of the worst books I've ever read.
We start off with Lucy telling her son right to his face that she wishes she never gave birth to him, then watches as he runs out onto the road and gets struck down by a car. You'd think this is the worst thing that could happen in the book, but you'd be wrong.
Every character is shallow and so very glib about disabilities, including Lucy. They are also very stupid, bitter and spiteful. Don't believe me? Take a look at these quotes:
"...including three other children with special needs (dysphasia, aphasia and dyspraxia - which sounded like three Russian models who'd formed a pop trio)"
"Veronica (better known as Moronica in my family because of her obstinate stupidity)"
"There are times when I truly believe Merlin to be an alien," I said lightly. "Sometimes, I feel that I didn't give birth to him at all but found him under a spaceship and raised him on my own."
"You have a son?" I could see Octavian doing a quick bit of mental arithmetic.
"Child bride," I explained with mock-lightness, scrambling to my feet.
"Look, I know you and Derek don't want to admit that there's anything wrong with Merlin, because everyone knows that autism and Aspergers are genetic" ... "But I do think it's time to find out why Merlin's like this ... Have there been any other idiot savants like him in the Beaufort clan? I mean, take Derek. Highly intelligent, yes, but socially awkward and insular ..."
"...He should be sent away somewhere. I could write you cheque for $100,000 right now today - if you let me take Merlin with me and have him looked after properly. In a private care home."
"Oh Lulu! You're so schizophrenic," my exasperated sister butted in. "You pretend to be all strong and independent, but secretly you're so lonely."
"Hey," I jibed. "I may be schizophrenic, but at least I have each other."
Kathy Lette also writes like she's trying to seem highly intelligent, like she's "in the know" and she comes off second-best. Her writing style is so densely packed with intelligent-sounding words, analogies are twisted so much it's hard to understand the point she's trying to get across, and it makes all of her characters seem like the type of people who'd buy thick volumes of classic literature at garage sales and just never read them; they're there only to make them look well-read when they probably couldn't even quote the first line.
I hate this book with a passion.
We start off with Lucy telling her son right to his face that she wishes she never gave birth to him, then watches as he runs out onto the road and gets struck down by a car. You'd think this is the worst thing that could happen in the book, but you'd be wrong.
Every character is shallow and so very glib about disabilities, including Lucy. They are also very stupid, bitter and spiteful. Don't believe me? Take a look at these quotes:
"...including three other children with special needs (dysphasia, aphasia and dyspraxia - which sounded like three Russian models who'd formed a pop trio)"
"Veronica (better known as Moronica in my family because of her obstinate stupidity)"
"There are times when I truly believe Merlin to be an alien," I said lightly. "Sometimes, I feel that I didn't give birth to him at all but found him under a spaceship and raised him on my own."
"You have a son?" I could see Octavian doing a quick bit of mental arithmetic.
"Child bride," I explained with mock-lightness, scrambling to my feet.
"Look, I know you and Derek don't want to admit that there's anything wrong with Merlin, because everyone knows that autism and Aspergers are genetic" ... "But I do think it's time to find out why Merlin's like this ... Have there been any other idiot savants like him in the Beaufort clan? I mean, take Derek. Highly intelligent, yes, but socially awkward and insular ..."
"...He should be sent away somewhere. I could write you cheque for $100,000 right now today - if you let me take Merlin with me and have him looked after properly. In a private care home."
"Oh Lulu! You're so schizophrenic," my exasperated sister butted in. "You pretend to be all strong and independent, but secretly you're so lonely."
"Hey," I jibed. "I may be schizophrenic, but at least I have each other."
Kathy Lette also writes like she's trying to seem highly intelligent, like she's "in the know" and she comes off second-best. Her writing style is so densely packed with intelligent-sounding words, analogies are twisted so much it's hard to understand the point she's trying to get across, and it makes all of her characters seem like the type of people who'd buy thick volumes of classic literature at garage sales and just never read them; they're there only to make them look well-read when they probably couldn't even quote the first line.
I hate this book with a passion.
July 3, 2012
Kathy Lette writes from experience. Like her own child, Merlin is Lucy’s intelligent and autistic son. He can rattle of cricket scores from every match over the past twenty years but can’t remember how to dress himself. With Merlin’s father fleeing from the family home not long after the diagnosis, Lucy is left to raise Merlin on her own and Merlin becomes the only man that Lucy has room for in her life. Written with the quick wit you would expect from Lette. Despite not being a factual read, the lows and highs of raising a child with a challenging mental condition are covered, including the reactions from society. It also explores the idea that if not careful, a parent can be close to over-protecting the child, despite the best of intentions.
May 1, 2012
Lette writes a timely, some would say cynical, story about a woman with an apparently autistic boy. The boy starts out as profoundly autistic, downgrades to mere Asperger's syndrome by adolescence, and by adulthood is simply a prat. Inbetween, in the other 80% of the novel, the woman goes through a series of relationships, before settling on the type of completely repellent Australian that features in all of Lette's novels.
March 25, 2017
Fabulous story. Full of humour; a human interest subject that will warm your heart and inspire your soul but not sentimental. Thoroughly recommended to those who are interested in relationships and those of us who can relate to non-conformist social behaviour.
August 27, 2012
cheesy, cheese with cheese. Once I stopped cringing at all the meno tragic sex jokes the underlying story was ok.
July 3, 2020
AUDIOBOOK REVIEW:
In general, when choosing audiobooks, I tend to 'dumb down' my choices and pick things that I hope won't be too taxing. I don't go for anything that requires deep thought, as I'm generally driving when I listen to audiobooks and it would be dangerous to be too distracted. I used to love Kathy Lette - a couple of decades ago - so I figured 'The Boy Who Fell to Earth' was worth a punt. I got it from the free library service Borrowbox. So on the plus side, even if it sucked hours of my life into a mire of frustration, at least it didn't cost me anything.
Has Kathy Lette changed or have I? I suspect the problem is that she hasn't and I have. I might have thought this funny 20 years ago. Now I just find most of it pretty pathetic. A woman who fights about everything, repeatedly jumps into bed with unsuitable man, sneers at the world and blames everybody else for her problems. That's just the start.
Throw in more over-blown similes and metaphors than you could shake double-entendre stick at, and sprinkle with an overdose of inappropriate one-liners and you've got a recipe for deep irritation. Or as Kathy would probably have said if she were reviewing it, 'more irritation than a cheap synthetic g-string'. Actually, she'd say 'more irritation than a cheap synthetic g-string up your bum' because she always overdoes everything. There's one line that sticks in my mind when she described somebody as looking "like she'd been dressed by Helen Keller in the dark". WHAT POSSIBLE DIFFERENCE WOULD IT MAKE IF IT WAS IN THE DARK. HELEN KELLER WAS BLIND. PAH! It's this tendency to take everything just one step TOO far that drives me crazy.
Another early example. Describing her husband the character says his voice had "more timber than IKEA". THAT'S NOT FUNNY. And yes, I'm shouting. The word is timbre. The joke doesn't work. But never mind if a joke doesn't work because there will be another half dozen in the next page of text to compensate for the duff ones.
Bringing up a kid with autism on your own really isn't fodder for quite so much incessant one-liner humour.
Fat shaming isn't funny. If the social worker or your mother-in-law can't be ridiculed without resorting to fat-shaming, your vocabulary is defective.
And now, onto my biggest irritation about this audiobook. The voice artist's speech impediment. She cannot pronounce a T in the middle of world to save her li'ul life. Glottal-Stops-R-Us. I checked and she's Australian. No problem with that. I like an Australian accent. Except we don't get that. We get an Australian pretending to be a middle-class London-based woman married to a posh chap. (Incidentally, throwing in a fun but rather silly west country accent for her mother but having none of that herself). The glottal stops irritated me so much that I really wanted to stop listening. I couldn't blot them out. I couldn't stop cringing. In the end I upped the speed to 1.75x. It didn't stop me noticing, but it made the story move at a pace where I didn't have time to get so worked up about them.
So this one can go down as an absolute AVOID from me.
In general, when choosing audiobooks, I tend to 'dumb down' my choices and pick things that I hope won't be too taxing. I don't go for anything that requires deep thought, as I'm generally driving when I listen to audiobooks and it would be dangerous to be too distracted. I used to love Kathy Lette - a couple of decades ago - so I figured 'The Boy Who Fell to Earth' was worth a punt. I got it from the free library service Borrowbox. So on the plus side, even if it sucked hours of my life into a mire of frustration, at least it didn't cost me anything.
Has Kathy Lette changed or have I? I suspect the problem is that she hasn't and I have. I might have thought this funny 20 years ago. Now I just find most of it pretty pathetic. A woman who fights about everything, repeatedly jumps into bed with unsuitable man, sneers at the world and blames everybody else for her problems. That's just the start.
Throw in more over-blown similes and metaphors than you could shake double-entendre stick at, and sprinkle with an overdose of inappropriate one-liners and you've got a recipe for deep irritation. Or as Kathy would probably have said if she were reviewing it, 'more irritation than a cheap synthetic g-string'. Actually, she'd say 'more irritation than a cheap synthetic g-string up your bum' because she always overdoes everything. There's one line that sticks in my mind when she described somebody as looking "like she'd been dressed by Helen Keller in the dark". WHAT POSSIBLE DIFFERENCE WOULD IT MAKE IF IT WAS IN THE DARK. HELEN KELLER WAS BLIND. PAH! It's this tendency to take everything just one step TOO far that drives me crazy.
Another early example. Describing her husband the character says his voice had "more timber than IKEA". THAT'S NOT FUNNY. And yes, I'm shouting. The word is timbre. The joke doesn't work. But never mind if a joke doesn't work because there will be another half dozen in the next page of text to compensate for the duff ones.
Bringing up a kid with autism on your own really isn't fodder for quite so much incessant one-liner humour.
Fat shaming isn't funny. If the social worker or your mother-in-law can't be ridiculed without resorting to fat-shaming, your vocabulary is defective.
And now, onto my biggest irritation about this audiobook. The voice artist's speech impediment. She cannot pronounce a T in the middle of world to save her li'ul life. Glottal-Stops-R-Us. I checked and she's Australian. No problem with that. I like an Australian accent. Except we don't get that. We get an Australian pretending to be a middle-class London-based woman married to a posh chap. (Incidentally, throwing in a fun but rather silly west country accent for her mother but having none of that herself). The glottal stops irritated me so much that I really wanted to stop listening. I couldn't blot them out. I couldn't stop cringing. In the end I upped the speed to 1.75x. It didn't stop me noticing, but it made the story move at a pace where I didn't have time to get so worked up about them.
So this one can go down as an absolute AVOID from me.
October 21, 2018
If only this book cooled it with the puns and incessant one liners, it would have been far more enjoyable.
Written during the great Asperger's renaissance that we've all had to suffer through during the past few years, The Boy Who Fell To Earth is the story of a single mother and her autistic son, and their struggles to live a normal life.
I can't say that there's much more to the story than that, and whilst a bit of humor here and there made the beginning of the book enjoyable to read, before you know it the whole book has followed the same premise of self depreciating humor and acerbic wit that means that you're really not moving along to anywhere in particular and the jokes are to fill in a sparse plot.
However some of the characters are quite charming, so there is a little bit of good in the book.
Written during the great Asperger's renaissance that we've all had to suffer through during the past few years, The Boy Who Fell To Earth is the story of a single mother and her autistic son, and their struggles to live a normal life.
I can't say that there's much more to the story than that, and whilst a bit of humor here and there made the beginning of the book enjoyable to read, before you know it the whole book has followed the same premise of self depreciating humor and acerbic wit that means that you're really not moving along to anywhere in particular and the jokes are to fill in a sparse plot.
However some of the characters are quite charming, so there is a little bit of good in the book.
September 2, 2018
This was probably a 3.5 for me. I found the first part of the book a bit full on but half way through the book (when Archie arrived) it became more of a story and less of a list of anecdotes about Merlin's behaviour.
What it did raise for me is how difficult raising a child with Asperger's is and the lack of support for parents.
What it did raise for me is how difficult raising a child with Asperger's is and the lack of support for parents.
February 4, 2025
Wow! I audio booked this one and loved it. It was laugh out loud funny at times and hit all the heart strings! Really enjoyed it 👍
October 14, 2013
I've never been a big fan of Kathy Lette as an author. Apart from Puberty Blues, I have never managed to finish one of her books. I read this on the recommendation of a friend who has a young child with high functioning Autism. I mention this because it did colour the way I read the book.
I don't have a child with special needs. I have taught children with a variety of special needs - either physical, intellectual of behavioural. I have many friends who have children with autism, ranging from you wouldn't know the child had a diagnosis unless you had spent a lot of time with them through to the child who will need care for the rest of his life. I have seen people who react (for want of a better word) to children with special needs in atrocious ways and those who don't react any differently than they do with any other kid. I've dealt with the education system as a teacher, trying to provide the best opportunities and I have heard stories of an education system that want to wash their hands of anything out of the ordinary that make me so angry. I'd like to thinking that I have at least a basic understanding of autism and the challenges faced by families with children with autism, but I know I have no real idea of what it like day to day.
I had some issues with this book. I had some issues with Lucy. I has some issues with Lucy's mother, her mother-in-law, her boyfriend and her ex husband. I had no issues with Merlin.
My thoughts can best be summed up by another reviewer over on Goodreads, Sam Pope, who has a daughter with Asperger's.
Additionally, if [Lucy] is meant to be portrayed as a sympathetic character, Lette has failed miserably. She talks constantly of how much she loves her son but doesn't properly inform her army of lovers of his difficulties and when he puts his foot in it and talks inappropriately she just feels embarrassed rather than protecting him. I have a child who at times blurts out things that are best left unsaid and try to gently steer her away from a topic of conversation if it is inappropriate. What we see with [Lucy] is her just sitting there and indulging her own embarrassment rather than shielding her son.
And that was my issue. For all of her talk of love, for all of her trying to get Merlin into a decent educational setting, she never seemed to sooth the way for Merlin in social situations. Even I know you don't take someone to meet someone with Asperger's without first explaining the person's quirks, their lack of filter, their inability to pick up social cues. It astounded me that she continued to have conversations with people within Merlin's hearing, saying things you really don't want repeated (like the fact your MIL is two faced and you wonder which one she will be wearing today), knowing there is a really good chance he WILL repeat it. I was infuriated by Archie's inability to understand that Merlin would take things literally - that if you told him to play in the traffic he would.
And yet, despite all of that, I did enjoy the book.It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me wince. I do think it gave insight into what life with a child with Asperger's could be like. However I don't think it took any time to celebrate the joy a child with Asperger's can bring as well - and for that it is a poorer book.
I don't have a child with special needs. I have taught children with a variety of special needs - either physical, intellectual of behavioural. I have many friends who have children with autism, ranging from you wouldn't know the child had a diagnosis unless you had spent a lot of time with them through to the child who will need care for the rest of his life. I have seen people who react (for want of a better word) to children with special needs in atrocious ways and those who don't react any differently than they do with any other kid. I've dealt with the education system as a teacher, trying to provide the best opportunities and I have heard stories of an education system that want to wash their hands of anything out of the ordinary that make me so angry. I'd like to thinking that I have at least a basic understanding of autism and the challenges faced by families with children with autism, but I know I have no real idea of what it like day to day.
I had some issues with this book. I had some issues with Lucy. I has some issues with Lucy's mother, her mother-in-law, her boyfriend and her ex husband. I had no issues with Merlin.
My thoughts can best be summed up by another reviewer over on Goodreads, Sam Pope, who has a daughter with Asperger's.
Additionally, if [Lucy] is meant to be portrayed as a sympathetic character, Lette has failed miserably. She talks constantly of how much she loves her son but doesn't properly inform her army of lovers of his difficulties and when he puts his foot in it and talks inappropriately she just feels embarrassed rather than protecting him. I have a child who at times blurts out things that are best left unsaid and try to gently steer her away from a topic of conversation if it is inappropriate. What we see with [Lucy] is her just sitting there and indulging her own embarrassment rather than shielding her son.
And that was my issue. For all of her talk of love, for all of her trying to get Merlin into a decent educational setting, she never seemed to sooth the way for Merlin in social situations. Even I know you don't take someone to meet someone with Asperger's without first explaining the person's quirks, their lack of filter, their inability to pick up social cues. It astounded me that she continued to have conversations with people within Merlin's hearing, saying things you really don't want repeated (like the fact your MIL is two faced and you wonder which one she will be wearing today), knowing there is a really good chance he WILL repeat it. I was infuriated by Archie's inability to understand that Merlin would take things literally - that if you told him to play in the traffic he would.
And yet, despite all of that, I did enjoy the book.It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me wince. I do think it gave insight into what life with a child with Asperger's could be like. However I don't think it took any time to celebrate the joy a child with Asperger's can bring as well - and for that it is a poorer book.
March 26, 2025
The book starts well, with a shocking incident followed by a style of writing that’s witty and quite funny. For a while. It grows steadily less amusing and more like a relentless barrage of hit-and-miss, sarcastic and sometimes really quite nasty gags as the story goes on. Merlin is fantastically realized: Lucy and her train of lovers less so.
Perhaps the first fifty per cent is entertaining, but then I grew ever more disenchanted. The wit is there – the author is clever, highly literate and has a good sense of humour in there somewhere. But humour can’t be at the expense of everything else in a novel, like believable conversations or showing what lies beneath. It felt brittle and shallow after a while.
Basically, the book needs more heart and less sex/sort-of-romance (the one-liners get in the way). Lucy determining she has to get a man this time round for her son’s sake is a weak excuse to drive a romance plot that doesn’t really work when the reader’s main engagement is with the progress of her disadvantaged child. The basic premise of a man being the only solution to a single woman's problems seems woefully sexist and old-fashioned. Personally, I’d have gathered physical photographic evidence of Merlin’s appalling treatment in the state schools and social milieu in which he is being constantly robbed and bullied, and threatened to publicly humiliate his MP grandfather with his heartless abandonment and neglect of his grandchild unless he coughed up funds for his education. Blackmailing/fact shaming affluent relatives would seem like a more productive method of helping my child than shagging random men, most of whom run a mile the minute they get to meet him anyway.
The depiction of the teaching profession grated. I started teaching in the mid-nineties and I would say that that was when autism and Asperger’s were being flagged up and just beginning to be understood in education. I had a profoundly autistic child in my class (1997-ish) but he spent much of the week in a special unit and came into class with full teaching (not teacher aide) support. Such units have become increasingly rare, and the places in them like gold dust. Especially given the “on the spectrum” epidemic we are experiencing now.
I still teach and have thirty years’ experience on different sides of the world. Over the past decade or so, it is more usual to have a child on the spectrum than not in your classroom.
Last year I had the privilege of observing a very young teacher in her first post manage a non-verbal autistic boy. He was a large Pasifika lad, far bigger and stronger than any other child in her class of five- to seven-year-olds. The teacher had a lovely quiet, calm manner and was deeply committed to all the children. She worked hard at forming a caring relationship with this child.
My role in this was to take the class – I had decided to retire, a decision I later rescinded (why leave the most important job in the world?) and worked for a while in the poorer areas of Wellington relief teaching. Her headteacher had found the funds to release her by employing a relieving teacher, so that she could foster her relationship with this boy enough to actually teach him. By and large, she succeeded. I am convinced few teachers could have done better. There are two takeaways from this:
• Her principal was concerned, active and sharp enough to rustle up funding, largely from within a stretched school budget, so that she could have regular time out from classroom teaching
• Her relieving teacher, by good luck, was a highly experienced and effective teacher so the rest of the class did not miss out
Novels like this seem a million miles away from the real world of education, to be honest.
So, the mother is at her wit’s end trying to manage her autistic child with a one on one adult:child ratio. But then she seems to think that a teacher with twenty-five plus other children to manage – some of whom will also be high needs – should manage and educate this autistic child and the rest of the class as well.
Teaching over the past many years has had a ridiculously low retention rate because teachers have to meet increasingly unrealistic expectations. The average age of a teacher now in New Zealand is somewhere in the fifties. Parents of able children, parents of ESOL children, parents of high needs and on the spectrum children, all have correctly high expectations – but the teacher, with a workload that is verging infinite, has the most modest support and if she can’t manage all these balls she’s trying to juggle – well, she’s just not good enough (btw I have a slightly cynical view of education ministries, teacher trainers, academics, politicians: those who can, teach; those who can’t, teach for five years and go into management, teacher training, research, basically anything else. Teaching is the hardest job. Why the twerps who haven’t been in front of a class for twenty years get paid the big bucks, is a screaming injustice). Those parents who excoriate the uselessness of teachers might want to reflect: how would you cope with your child plus three or four other extreme high needs kids (maybe also on the spectrum, maybe dyslexic, maybe withdrawn or acting out because they’re sexually abused or experiencing family violence, maybe with anxiety, or fetal alcohol syndrome – the list is literally almost endless, but you will have a proportion in every class you teach unless you’re in the private sector), plus twenty odd others who also need a rich, well-planned programme that aligns with their assessed needs, their progress and the curriculum?
The sad truth is, that politicians and governments have jumped on the ideology of mainstreaming all children because integration is better, with delight. In theory it’s great. In practice it’s been the excuse for a massive reduction in special school/special unit places, and high needs children being placed in mainstream with a teeny-tiny allocated pot of support funds. It's a decision rooted in economics. And then when it fails – when the child acts out or can’t cope – it’s the teacher’s fault for being inadequate.
Finally, I have worked with many principals over thirty years: they have been of wildly variable talent, but none of them have been the finger-steepling, snooty, uncaring, dismissive idiots this novel depicts. The headteachers in this novel seem to be from a different era. I don’t know, maybe they are. I grew up in an education system that seemed in many ways negative and grim compared to how things are now, maybe this is just decades out of date.
And the final straw with the novel: really, Lucy considers taking the ghastly Jeremy back? He ruined your baby’s childhood: he abandoned him with absolute, unforgivable selfishness and offered neither emotional nor financial support. Just organize routine access and insist on some overdue money in return like a sensible person for once. I mean, wanting private education fees paid but then screaming at her stuffy mother-in -law about hereditary autism and they need to check their side of the family bloodline? What on earth for? It changes absolutely nothing regarding Merlin’s actual needs right now. Keep the woman onside and put your son first. Which is not achieved by shagging polo players but by being hard-nosed about the money.
Perhaps the first fifty per cent is entertaining, but then I grew ever more disenchanted. The wit is there – the author is clever, highly literate and has a good sense of humour in there somewhere. But humour can’t be at the expense of everything else in a novel, like believable conversations or showing what lies beneath. It felt brittle and shallow after a while.
Basically, the book needs more heart and less sex/sort-of-romance (the one-liners get in the way). Lucy determining she has to get a man this time round for her son’s sake is a weak excuse to drive a romance plot that doesn’t really work when the reader’s main engagement is with the progress of her disadvantaged child. The basic premise of a man being the only solution to a single woman's problems seems woefully sexist and old-fashioned. Personally, I’d have gathered physical photographic evidence of Merlin’s appalling treatment in the state schools and social milieu in which he is being constantly robbed and bullied, and threatened to publicly humiliate his MP grandfather with his heartless abandonment and neglect of his grandchild unless he coughed up funds for his education. Blackmailing/fact shaming affluent relatives would seem like a more productive method of helping my child than shagging random men, most of whom run a mile the minute they get to meet him anyway.
The depiction of the teaching profession grated. I started teaching in the mid-nineties and I would say that that was when autism and Asperger’s were being flagged up and just beginning to be understood in education. I had a profoundly autistic child in my class (1997-ish) but he spent much of the week in a special unit and came into class with full teaching (not teacher aide) support. Such units have become increasingly rare, and the places in them like gold dust. Especially given the “on the spectrum” epidemic we are experiencing now.
I still teach and have thirty years’ experience on different sides of the world. Over the past decade or so, it is more usual to have a child on the spectrum than not in your classroom.
Last year I had the privilege of observing a very young teacher in her first post manage a non-verbal autistic boy. He was a large Pasifika lad, far bigger and stronger than any other child in her class of five- to seven-year-olds. The teacher had a lovely quiet, calm manner and was deeply committed to all the children. She worked hard at forming a caring relationship with this child.
My role in this was to take the class – I had decided to retire, a decision I later rescinded (why leave the most important job in the world?) and worked for a while in the poorer areas of Wellington relief teaching. Her headteacher had found the funds to release her by employing a relieving teacher, so that she could foster her relationship with this boy enough to actually teach him. By and large, she succeeded. I am convinced few teachers could have done better. There are two takeaways from this:
• Her principal was concerned, active and sharp enough to rustle up funding, largely from within a stretched school budget, so that she could have regular time out from classroom teaching
• Her relieving teacher, by good luck, was a highly experienced and effective teacher so the rest of the class did not miss out
Novels like this seem a million miles away from the real world of education, to be honest.
So, the mother is at her wit’s end trying to manage her autistic child with a one on one adult:child ratio. But then she seems to think that a teacher with twenty-five plus other children to manage – some of whom will also be high needs – should manage and educate this autistic child and the rest of the class as well.
Teaching over the past many years has had a ridiculously low retention rate because teachers have to meet increasingly unrealistic expectations. The average age of a teacher now in New Zealand is somewhere in the fifties. Parents of able children, parents of ESOL children, parents of high needs and on the spectrum children, all have correctly high expectations – but the teacher, with a workload that is verging infinite, has the most modest support and if she can’t manage all these balls she’s trying to juggle – well, she’s just not good enough (btw I have a slightly cynical view of education ministries, teacher trainers, academics, politicians: those who can, teach; those who can’t, teach for five years and go into management, teacher training, research, basically anything else. Teaching is the hardest job. Why the twerps who haven’t been in front of a class for twenty years get paid the big bucks, is a screaming injustice). Those parents who excoriate the uselessness of teachers might want to reflect: how would you cope with your child plus three or four other extreme high needs kids (maybe also on the spectrum, maybe dyslexic, maybe withdrawn or acting out because they’re sexually abused or experiencing family violence, maybe with anxiety, or fetal alcohol syndrome – the list is literally almost endless, but you will have a proportion in every class you teach unless you’re in the private sector), plus twenty odd others who also need a rich, well-planned programme that aligns with their assessed needs, their progress and the curriculum?
The sad truth is, that politicians and governments have jumped on the ideology of mainstreaming all children because integration is better, with delight. In theory it’s great. In practice it’s been the excuse for a massive reduction in special school/special unit places, and high needs children being placed in mainstream with a teeny-tiny allocated pot of support funds. It's a decision rooted in economics. And then when it fails – when the child acts out or can’t cope – it’s the teacher’s fault for being inadequate.
Finally, I have worked with many principals over thirty years: they have been of wildly variable talent, but none of them have been the finger-steepling, snooty, uncaring, dismissive idiots this novel depicts. The headteachers in this novel seem to be from a different era. I don’t know, maybe they are. I grew up in an education system that seemed in many ways negative and grim compared to how things are now, maybe this is just decades out of date.
And the final straw with the novel: really, Lucy considers taking the ghastly Jeremy back? He ruined your baby’s childhood: he abandoned him with absolute, unforgivable selfishness and offered neither emotional nor financial support. Just organize routine access and insist on some overdue money in return like a sensible person for once. I mean, wanting private education fees paid but then screaming at her stuffy mother-in -law about hereditary autism and they need to check their side of the family bloodline? What on earth for? It changes absolutely nothing regarding Merlin’s actual needs right now. Keep the woman onside and put your son first. Which is not achieved by shagging polo players but by being hard-nosed about the money.
August 28, 2022
Questo libro mi ha molto deluso...che dire, ero così felice di averlo trovato in scambio, ma ho capito anche perché lo scambiavano...Pensavo fosse una bella storia di narrativa attuale e interessante, riguardo un bambino autistico, invece sono molto più protagoniste le avventure hot della mamma...poi neanche sua mamma e zia sorella non stanno tanto bene mentalmente...Davvero una delusione.
Secondo me non era neanche tradotto bene perché alcune frasi non sembravano neanche avere senso, poi tanta volgarità così esplicita e senza motivo...Mi sa che lo scambierò anch'io.
Ogni tanto c'è qualche frase bella e toccante, motivo per cui ho dato due stelle e non una, bello il finale, con una bella frase e perché finalmente era finito!
Secondo me non era neanche tradotto bene perché alcune frasi non sembravano neanche avere senso, poi tanta volgarità così esplicita e senza motivo...Mi sa che lo scambierò anch'io.
Ogni tanto c'è qualche frase bella e toccante, motivo per cui ho dato due stelle e non una, bello il finale, con una bella frase e perché finalmente era finito!
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