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The Waiting Pool
Since moving to Hollywood, Natalie’s ability to find humor and hope in every situation has always been her saving grace. A resilience she’ll need even more when her 2-year-old son is diagnosed with autism. Suddenly finding herself knee deep but drowning in the new world of “waiting pools,” where a child’s disability services are based on eligibility (aka how much money one makes or how famous they are), Natalie needs to find a way to pay for her child’s early intervention. And fast.
Desperate, she takes a job as the personal assistant to Johnny Stix, an A-list action star who is silver spoon spoiled. Cleaning up the myriad personal and professional messes he makes by the minute, reading him scripts, chauffeuring him all over LA in her minivan, and attending extravagant parties becomes Natalie’s new normal. As does his occasional hooker and growing co-dependency. While bouncing between his fairy tale life and the reality of her son’s therapies and struggles, Natalie discovers that navigating and surviving Hollywood is much like dealing with the mysterious world of autism; that there are no clear answers, and no yellow brick road to magically follow towards success. Instead, like most things in life, you just have to jump in and decide if you’re going to sink or swim.
Desperate, she takes a job as the personal assistant to Johnny Stix, an A-list action star who is silver spoon spoiled. Cleaning up the myriad personal and professional messes he makes by the minute, reading him scripts, chauffeuring him all over LA in her minivan, and attending extravagant parties becomes Natalie’s new normal. As does his occasional hooker and growing co-dependency. While bouncing between his fairy tale life and the reality of her son’s therapies and struggles, Natalie discovers that navigating and surviving Hollywood is much like dealing with the mysterious world of autism; that there are no clear answers, and no yellow brick road to magically follow towards success. Instead, like most things in life, you just have to jump in and decide if you’re going to sink or swim.
322 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
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August 24, 2016
i read two books within a few days on mothers, children, and autism. This book was my favorite, because the story seemed to flow much more organically than the other. You saw clearly the effects of autism on the immediate family and the grandparents (whose suggestions show that they saw their grandchild as somewhat spoiled and bratty. Her husband couldn't handle all the problems, so he distanced himself from everything. Natalie was basically figuring things out on her own and doing whatever it took to get the kind of therapies her son needed. I liked the fact that it was very clear that she financially struggled in order to get those therapies, since that seems much more realistic. I also liked that the story covered enough of a time frame that we got to see Carter improved.Johnny Stix made some dumb moves, but he loved Carter. For that I will forgive him anything.
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