Love Anthony is an interesting book. The title implies it's about a boy named Anthony who had autism and died at age eight. His mother, Olivia, comes to Nantucket to start over when Anthony's death also ends her marriage. Meanwhile, another woman living on the island, Beth, has to start over too, when she learns her husband is cheating on her with a local woman. Beth goes back to her first love, writing, inspired by a little boy with autism she observed on a Nantucket beach some years before.
You can probably figure who that little boy was. While I liked many things about this book, the premise that Beth could write so accurately about a child with autism without knowing anything about it was both unbelievable (I'm not much for the concept of channeling), and puzzling, as it lessened the importance of Beth returning to an earlier passion (was she writing or channeling?).
I didn't like this one as much as Lisa Genova's Still Alice or Inside the O'Briens. It works much better to have the afflicted person tell his/her own story about one's illness, but that's not really possible with autism. Still, it's obvious this neuroscientist author knows her stuff.
© Amanda Pape - 2017
[This book was borrowed from and returned to my local public library.]
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