Helpful Score: 3
Review first published on my blog: http://memoriesfrombooks.blogspot.com/2012/12/love-anthony.html
Lisa Genova holds PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. Her fiction novels are inspired by neuroscience and its impact on our lives. Her first book, Still Alice, dealt with Alzheimers. Her second book, Left Neglected, dealt with the effects of a brain injury due to an accident. Love Anthony deals with autism.
It brings to life the story of a little boy - Anthony. Anthony is an autistic boy or a boy with autism. He was nonverbal. He refused to make eye contact. He did not like to be touched. However, at the end of it all, he is a little boy deeply loved and cherished by his family.
Olivia Donatelli is Anthony's mother. After Anthony's death, she moves to Nantucket seeking peace and understanding of Anthony's life and his death. Beth Ellis is a long time Nantucket resident and a wife and a mother. She is going through struggles of her own and beginning to rediscover and understand her life. The stories of these two women comes together through Anthony in a most unexpected way.
The manner in which the story comes together is completely implausible to me. Yet, it does not matter at all. The way in which the story is told and the emotions and thoughts depicted completely pulled me in and made me forget the implausibility of it all.
Through Olivia's story, we learn of the anguish of a parent unable to help their child and the anguish of losing a child. Beth is a writer and gives voice to the child who had no voice. It pulls you into the Olivia and Anthony's world and hopefully helps you understand. As the author says about the book, "The spectrum is long and wide, and we're all on it. Once you believe this, it becomes easy to see how we're all connected."
Lisa Genova holds PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. Her fiction novels are inspired by neuroscience and its impact on our lives. Her first book, Still Alice, dealt with Alzheimers. Her second book, Left Neglected, dealt with the effects of a brain injury due to an accident. Love Anthony deals with autism.
It brings to life the story of a little boy - Anthony. Anthony is an autistic boy or a boy with autism. He was nonverbal. He refused to make eye contact. He did not like to be touched. However, at the end of it all, he is a little boy deeply loved and cherished by his family.
Olivia Donatelli is Anthony's mother. After Anthony's death, she moves to Nantucket seeking peace and understanding of Anthony's life and his death. Beth Ellis is a long time Nantucket resident and a wife and a mother. She is going through struggles of her own and beginning to rediscover and understand her life. The stories of these two women comes together through Anthony in a most unexpected way.
The manner in which the story comes together is completely implausible to me. Yet, it does not matter at all. The way in which the story is told and the emotions and thoughts depicted completely pulled me in and made me forget the implausibility of it all.
Through Olivia's story, we learn of the anguish of a parent unable to help their child and the anguish of losing a child. Beth is a writer and gives voice to the child who had no voice. It pulls you into the Olivia and Anthony's world and hopefully helps you understand. As the author says about the book, "The spectrum is long and wide, and we're all on it. Once you believe this, it becomes easy to see how we're all connected."
Helpful Score: 3
I started this book after dinner last night, finished after 1 am.
I was drawn into this book, Anthony's story opening my eyes to his world. Having a grandchild on the spectrum, although verbal, potty trained at 3, he didn't speak until he started ABA. He is 4 now, knows and loves mom, dad and granny he lives in a world unlike mine. We do not know where his life will lead him but we know we are blessed to have him in our life. Every time he blesses me with a tight hug, climbs in my lap and smiles, my heart does sing.
I do recommend this book and enjoyed every page.
My daughter has chosen not to read it, says she lives with autism everyday, this is not just a story of a child with autism it is a story of life.
I was drawn into this book, Anthony's story opening my eyes to his world. Having a grandchild on the spectrum, although verbal, potty trained at 3, he didn't speak until he started ABA. He is 4 now, knows and loves mom, dad and granny he lives in a world unlike mine. We do not know where his life will lead him but we know we are blessed to have him in our life. Every time he blesses me with a tight hug, climbs in my lap and smiles, my heart does sing.
I do recommend this book and enjoyed every page.
My daughter has chosen not to read it, says she lives with autism everyday, this is not just a story of a child with autism it is a story of life.
Helpful Score: 1
Interesting way of presenting a child with autism. well researched. The last chapter was reason enough to read the book. Good lesson for everyone.
An inner view of autism weaved into a story bringing two women in different life situations together. I enjoyed the characters, and the setting of Nantucket.
I loved the other two books I have read by her but I could not get into this book. I tried several times and still couldnt get through it. I didnt feel the connections as I did with the other books by Lisa Genova I have read.
I wish the book description said that this was a book about a book that is being written about an autistic child, by a woman author who does not have an autistic child. I think the book description is completely misleading.
That said, I really disliked this book. I hate reading a book that has sections that are from different people's viewpoint without telling you who is "talking" in this section. I had to keep referring back to the beginning to straighten out the names and figure out whose viewpoint I was readimg in this chapter.
To be honest I read enough in the beginning to figure out teh plot and how it was written then skipped to the end and then a couple in the middle so I would know what happend and then quit reading. I haven't not read a book in a long time but I found this one that bad. The overall premise story of the book was good I just thought it was a lousy way of writing it.
That said, I really disliked this book. I hate reading a book that has sections that are from different people's viewpoint without telling you who is "talking" in this section. I had to keep referring back to the beginning to straighten out the names and figure out whose viewpoint I was readimg in this chapter.
To be honest I read enough in the beginning to figure out teh plot and how it was written then skipped to the end and then a couple in the middle so I would know what happend and then quit reading. I haven't not read a book in a long time but I found this one that bad. The overall premise story of the book was good I just thought it was a lousy way of writing it.
I'm now a huge fan of Lisa Genova! She got inside the head of an Alzheimer's patient in Still Alice,and a woman with a brain injury in Left Neglected. This time it's an autistic child. This is a story about two women,and the losses they have had, and how what goes on in the head of an autistic child brings them to understand more of life. IMHO it wasn't as good as Left Neglected, which I just couldn't put down. But it was an easy read, and I did enjoy it.
Lisa Genova is very good at putting her readers into a different kind of mind. She is not good at chick lit.
Such an interesting way to tell a story about Autism
