レビュー要約

• 主人公の内面を尊重した語りと、医療技術をめぐる倫理的問いが評価されている。静かな筆致でありながら、選択の重さが強く残る。

レビュー

• Not sure about the ending, but this story is truly fascinating

  Lou is an autistic computer programmer in the mid 21st century and his world seems to have an increased percentage of good and kindly people. Lou is socially inept but has some compensating "superpowers" that allow him to learn new physical (fencing) and mental skills (neuroscience) that help him understand change is something inevitable but manageable. I loved the autistic POV interspersed with neurotypical POV. And the sadly accurate descriptions of corporate sociopaths (a boss and a psychiatrist) and a "regular" narcissist taking their toll on Lou. Lou has to choose whether to change his mind (in a fundamentally literal sense) or not.

• Absolutely fascinating

  I have enjoyed several of Elizabeth Moons books but this was completely different. The story concerns the inner life of a high functioning autist and how he perceives himself and his 'normal' friends and acquaintances. While there is a good and interesting plot, what grabbed my attention time and time again was a series of revelations about how 'normals' behave. Lou and his autistic colleages have to attend regular therapy (to make sure that they don't become a problem and to help them fit in) and he has learnt to behave like a normal, ie, to make eye contact, to behave politely, to contain his anxiety when other people are angry and so on. So he really pays attention and can't help noticing that normal people often avoid eye contact, behave badly and make huge performances of their emotions which distresses him but he has to keep his feelings under wraps so as not to upset them. As the book has a mild near future/sci fi thread, it's necessary that Lou is highly intelligent and skilled which is maybe a minor flaw - I'm sure that the percentage of super intelligent autists is no greater than in the non-autistic population - but this doesn't detract much from a very thought provoking novel. I also found it slightly confusing that sometimes he couldn't read expressions at all and at other times he clearly described the changes in angry or sad faces. Some great philosophical questions though and I really enjoyed the book. Recommended.

• An excellent novel about autism

  The Speed of the Dark is Elizabeth Moon's science fiction book about autism. The science fiction parts of the book aren't very apparent. It's set in the future where autism can be cured in the womb, and follows Lou Arrendale, one of the last autistic people left. He's a high functioning autistic, and can live on his own, hold down a job doing pattern matching, and goes fencing. The novel is told mostly from his point of view. The central conflict in the novel describes a new director for Lou's job, Crenshaw, who decides that all the extra amenities and facilities that Lou and his colleagues need to be able to work are perks that should be cut. To that end, he "encourages" Lou's colleagues to try out an experimental treatment for curing autism. Crenshaw is a stereotypical corporate villain, and is never fleshed out, which is the biggest flaw in an otherwise excellent novel. But his attack on Lou brings up several issues: if you could cure a deep psychological problem like autism, would it be desirable to do so. If someone has come to an accommodation with his condition, wouldn't the change be traumatic, and possibly be effectively eliminating that person's former self? The novel explores these issues from Lou's perspective. The best thing about this novel is it's use of the first person perspective to grant insight into how an autistic individual works. If you're a Silicon Valley engineer, reading this novel will give you a very strong sense in how similar many engineers are to an autistic person, and where the big differences are. Jeff Bezoes is quoted as saying, "I learn more from fiction than from non-fiction books," and this book is illustrative: it's more insightful than even autobiographical books like Born on a Blue Day. The treatment is extremely sympathetic, and extremely well written. For some novelists, the central conflict's resolution would end the novel, but not Moon. She goes on to explore all the deeper issues involved in the novel, and the conversation Lou has with himself is a lot of fun. This is an excellent novel, and I can highly recommend it.

• Should he? Shouldn't he?

  I work for an organization that serves people with disabilities. We have started a disability book club in which we choose a book with a primary character with a disability, all read it, get together and talk about the themes raised in the book. Speed of Dark was our first book. It was a perfect one to start with. The book raises so many questions about disability, about autism, about the human condition. The question of cure, the idea of 'needing fixed' was a huge one for the book club members. We all felt very passionately about the end of the book. This is a book that leaves one feeling conflicted ... should he take the cure? is he fine the way he is? what could be gained? what could be lost? This book allows a glimpse into a mind that works well but works differently. Elizabeth Moon manages to create a character that it is impossible not to identify with ... despite the autism maybe even because of the autism. A great read, but warning ... you will need to talk about the ending with someone ... absolutely need to.

• A view from inside

  As you may have read already, this is a beautiful story, the story of an autistic adult and his struggle to cope with what the "normals" think of his condition. Literary references to "Flowers for Algernon" and "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time" are perhaps not really relevant, because here the depth of the description of the main character is incommensurably deeper than the one present in either of these other respectable works. The setting is in a very near future, which may warrant the SF tagging of this book. SF or not, this novel allows you to travel through the mind of an autistic person. This is a priceless discovery. Ms Moon describes it with such an astounding wealth of feelings and emotions that you find yourself literally inside the body of Lou before you know it and then you wish that the story would go on forever. What better proof that this book significantly extended my knowledge could one have?

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