Jordan Cameron is not like most nineteen-year-olds. He’s never been on a date, he’s never left New England, and he’s never fallen in love. He lives in his own world, or so that's what it seems to the average person. No one, not even his thirty-one-year-old brother, Tim, has ever given him the chance to break free.
With a schizophrenic mother in a group home and a career-obsessed absent father, Tim does the best he can raising someone with Jordan’s challenging behaviours. Despite Jordan’s diagnosis, Tim refuses to label him because “labels make us less than human.”
Thirty-year-old Jamie Perron has a history of bad relationships. After his girlfriend kicks him out this last time, his friend, Tim, lets him move in for the summer before embarking on a ten-month teaching stint in London. Jamie changes everything Jordan has ever known.
Music is the driving force that draws Jordan and Jamie together. With a similar taste in music, Jamie understands Jordan when no one else does. Never did Jamie think he would develop such an intense, romantic relationship with a strange, quiet, and sullen (yet cute) nineteen-year-old boy through the course of one interesting summer. Jamie changes everything Jordan has ever known.
This is the summer of Jordan’s sexual awakening.
Review
After the break up of his most recent relationship, Jamie stays with his friend Tim and Tim's brother, Jordan.
Jordan does not have a formal diagnosis of autism, but he is most certainly autistic. Both myself and my children are autistic and I identify with so many characteristics. At one time or another, one of us has experienced all of the difficulties Jordan does, although, thankfully, not quite as bad as his ultimate meltdown. It's come close though. The selective mutism, in particular, is something that is very familiar to all of us, as is the difficulty in handling small changes to routine.
It was nice that the book contained multiple points of view. It's interesting to see how our difficulties are perceived by neurotypical people, although I suspect there are few who are as understanding as Jamie.
I loved the way the relationship developed so slowly and naturally and the multiple music references added richness. Basically, Jamie and Jordan bonded over the music. Music is extremely important to Jordan as it reminds him of a time when his mother was involved in the family, and they were happy. Now, she's in a nursing home, entirely cut off from reality, not responding to either of her sons. Jordan's mother was heavily into punk music and her tastes were pretty awesome. I'm not entirely sure how younger people would react to the music, but it was my era and my tastes so I absolutely loved the blast from the past and I would play the song as it was mentioned. It made the reading experience so much richer and I can recommend it.
Jamie and Jordan's journey is so touching and well written. They are both ordinary, yet extraordinary young men and I felt for both of them, wanting them to win, to find their happily ever after. There were times when I couldn't quite see how that was going to happen, but the author was masterful in his crafting of situations that brought the impossible into the probable.
Both characters went through a lot of growth, but Jordan was truly inspirational to those who, like my family, are used to hearing all the things we can't do. It's nice to see someone saying - this is what you can achieve if you work hard enough and want it badly enough.
There was a time when society decreed that people with a "mental handicap" (which autism no longer is but that's not the point) should have sexual relationships and especially not children. Well, I am a former solicitor with two wonderful children. My daughter is a nurse in a long term relationship, with a house, a car and all the trappings of "normal" life. My son is at university and is going to do great things.
This book should be required reading in schools, giving the neurotypical population a clear message that "autistics are people too" and autistics the message - do not let anyone tell you what you can't do. It's your life and you can do great things with it.
The best word I can apply to this book is inspirational.
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