Marcelo In the Real World - Reviewed by Maggie Devero

Marcelo In the Real World by Francisco Stork

Reviewed by Maggie Devero

Growing up, and being able to face reality or the "real world" is tough. It's even tougher though, for a seventeen year old boy named Marcelo Sandoval. All his life, he has been catered to, due to the fact that he has a type of autism, more closely related to Aspergers's syndrome. This does not impair Marcelo in any severe type of way; it just makes him high functioning, and socially awkward to a large extent, but otherwise he is normal. He soon learns that people in the "real world" seem to think otherwise though, when he is faced with the choice to either work at his father Arturo's law firm for the summer, or forego attending his special needs school Paterson. Marcelo chooses to confront the "real world" for the first time, and in doing so realizes just how awful it can be out there. Not only do these coworkers and people he meets think he's extremely mentally retarded and incapable of the work given to him, but they also treat each other, people like themselves, with horrible intentions. He is soon enough faced with a situation where he has to choose for himself the path he gauges to be right, a path that might possibly lead him farther away from the destination he wanted to come to.

I gave this book four out of five stars. It was a lovely read, one that touches on a topic most authors seem hesitant to approach, or if they do, they approach it incorrectly. There are so many people out in this world that deal with special needs of all different kinds. But just because they are a little different gives no one the excuse to treat them like some horrific abnormality. This book points out perfectly, how special needs or not, people in general just seem to treat each other negatively anymore. It also shows that no matter who you are, you have the power to fight against this, and possibly manage to bring about a change. Having two special needs siblings, one of them a brother with autism, it was sweet seeing characteristics of Marcelo that were so similar to that of my brothers. That such a gentle soul dealing with these kinds of things makes Marcelo a very unique character indeed. I greatly enjoyed this book, and hope to read another book similar to it (which also received good reviews) called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. I would definitely recommend this book to those who feel weird about people with special needs, people who are familiar with those of special needs, and mentors of the people with them!