Marcelo in the Real World

3.5 stars
I'm not sure where to begin with this. On one hand, I loved this book. On the other hand, I do have a few major problems with it.

Firstly, the positives: Marcelo in the Real World features an autistic, Latino protagonist (super important representation!), Marcelo is not judged for his positive experience at a school for disabled children, complex themes such as religion, injustice and love are explored and the story gives an insight to the difficulties autistic people face when adjusting to the neurotypical world. On top of that, the book is easy to read and the writing is solid.

As for my complaints, I was quite disappointed in the usage of "functioning" labels. Myself and many others in the autistic community regard show more functioning labels as harmful, and Marcelo is consistently praised for his "extremely high-functioning" autism. As someone who would medically be considered "mildly autistic", it was difficult to read that praise, as it denies support and recognition of my issues. Besides, it also implies "low-functioning" autistics have less worth, which is an inhumane statement in itself.
Then, there was the focus on becoming a "regular" person. This was particularly emphasised at the end of the book: Marcelo managed to "fit in" by masking his autistic traits as much as he could and he's happy about it. That is not a message that should be spread, and this comes from someone who has mastered the skill of what we call masking in the autistic community. The solution is not to have autistic people hide parts of themselves, it is to give them space to be themselves.
I also didn't appreciate the inconsistent narrative. Marcelo switches from talking in first and third person regularly, even though it is implied in the beginning of the story that he only uses first person language when he consciously reminds himself of it. Some thing just didn't really add up.

Despite my complaints, I really enjoyed this Y/A novel. Being a seventeen-year-old is hard enough, let alone being thrown into a judgmental, confusing world which is completely out of your comfort zone. I think the autistic representation could've been better, but it's a start (besides, a neurotypical will never be able to portray us as well as we deserve, so let's give autistic authors a voice!).

Note: this book includes several ableist slurs, such as the r-word, m*ron and imb*cile. show less

The term "cognitive disorder" implies there is something wrong with the way I think or the way I perceive reality. I perceive reality just fine. Sometimes I perceive more of reality than others. Marcelo Sandoval hears music that nobody else can hear - part of an autism-like condition that no doctor has been able to identify. But his father has never fully believed in the music or Marcelo's differences, and he challenges Marcelo to work in the mailroom of his law firm for the summer . . . to join "the real world. There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm. He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. But it's a picture he finds in a file a picture show more of a girl with half a face that truly connects him with the real world: its suffering, its injustice, and what he can do to fight.

Marcelo Sandoval is a high-functioning, extremely self-aware teenager with Asperger's syndrome. He has an empathetic mother and a father, Arturo, who appears to be less empathetic as he pushes Marcelo to live in the "real world." The form the real world takes is a summer job in the mailroom at Arturo's law office. The teen is forced to think on his feet, multitask, and deal with duplicitous people who try to take advantage of him. Over the course of a summer, Marcelo learns that he can function in society; he is especially surprised to find that he can learn to read people's expressions, even to the point of knowing whom he can and cannot trust. Writing in a first-person narrative, Stork does an amazing job of entering Marcelo's consciousness and presenting him as a dynamic, sympathetic, and wholly believable character. show less

This book won, inter alia, New York Times Notable Children's Book of 2009, 2009 Booklist Editors' Choice, Horn Book Fanfare Book, Kirkus Best Book of 2009, Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2009 and School Library Journal Best Book of 2009.

Much of the marketing for this book labels it as a book about Asperger’s Syndrome, a high-level functioning form of autism. I think that characterization mispresents the nature of this book. Yes, 17-year old Marcelo Sandoval has been diagnosed with AS, but the story is not about his disability, per se, other than perhaps in terms of the reaction of other people to Marcelo. Above all, it is a beautiful coming of age story about what happens when Marcelo leaves the protected environment of a special show more school and goes to work at his father’s law firm “in the real world.”

Marcelo’s father Arturo, the head of a rapacious corporate law firm, thinks “the real world” will be good for him. But for Marcelo, in an analogy later explored with his spiritual advisor, Rabbi Heschel, the transition is more than just a change of location. By going from the special school to the law firm, basically he has left the innocence and goodness of Eden and now has to learn about the existence of evil. He even begins to question his faith, which previously had been the bedrock of his sheltered existence. The pain he saw at the special school, he discovers, is nothing in comparison to the pain people inflict on one another outside its confines.

At the law firm, his father arranges for him to work in the mailroom under Jasmine, a girl not much older than he is. She is kind and patient with him, unlike others in the firm, who call him “Gump” or “Retard.” Marcelo and Jasmine discover they share a love of music and of the way it both calms and also elates them.

Wendell, the shallow and callow son of Arturo’s partner, gets Marcelo transferred to his office so that Marcelo can do his work while he hits the beach. He also regularly tries to pressure Marcelo into helping him get Jasmine into a compromising sexual situation.

But while doing Wendell’s work, Marcelo discovers something about a big ongoing litigation case that will ultimately change his life. First though, he must decide how to resolve the moral dilemma he has encountered. He asks Jasmine for her opinion:

Jasmine: "I’m not the one playing the piano here. You’re the one that needs to decide what the next note will be."

Marcelo: "But how do I know the next note is the right one?"

Jasmine: "The right note sounds right and the wrong note sounds wrong."

Rabbi Heschel uses her own analogy: When the sap comes up from the ground and travels through the branches of a tree, it can go up one branch and it is good and bears fruit. Or it can go up another and it is evll and there is no fruit. She says: “You have to make sure it goes up the right branch. It’s up to you.”

Beyond the micro sense of the wrongdoing he has uncovered, Marcelo wonders generally, “How do we go about living when there is so much suffering?“ The process by which Marcelo arrives at a satisfactory answer to both of these questions is one that is so well thought out and riveting that the reader is carried along by his logic and good-heartedness to perform a similar self-analysis.

And the beginnings of young love, so new to someone like Marcelo, are a joy to witness. He wonders why he feels like there are “a thousand butterflies fluttering inside of him” when he is near Jasmine. He also tries to work out what this means, and how it fits in with his other discoveries about the real world.

Evaluation: Did I say enough times how fabulous this book is? It’s not another wonderful book about a disabled person. It’s a wonderful book in which the protagonist (and narrator) happens to be disabled. And yet, by the end of the book, you wonder, along with some of the characters, who the “disabled” people in this story really are. Highly recommended. show less

First off, I was completely enchanted by this book. Could not put it down, then about halfway through I had to put it aside for a few days because I both wanted it to never end but also because I was uncomfortable with the way things were going.

I just finished it today, and while the discomfort was there, and I did squirm, I'm sooooo glad I read this.

Marcelo is such a fascinating character - being on the autism spectrum, he has difficulty reading social and emotional cues, and so by nature he's outside of the "real world" and as such, is able to observe "normal" people with simple yet spot-on insight . At the beginning of summer, Marcelo make a deal with his lawyer father - come to work at his law firm, and if he "succeeds," Marcelo can show more choose for himself which school he'd like to attend in the fall. Fail to succeed and Marcelo has to go to the local high school for his senior year, instead of the special school he's been attending for his whole life.

Marcelo's work at the law firm brings him into contact with several situations and people, some of whom mean him harm, and his struggle to learn how to navigate this new, "real world" is breathtaking and heartbreaking.

I cannot recommend this book enough - it will make you smile, laugh, worry and it certainly made me choke up a bit.

One of my favorite reads all year. show less

I considered saying that this is a wonderful book about a young man with disabilities. But that wouldn't be quite correct. Marcello does indeed see the world differently, but would I call it a disability? Not for Marcello.

I thought about saying that this is a coming of age story. That is true, almost. Marcello does indeed find the strength within himself to see the world differently. In all of its ugliness and sad reality. So in this way, I guess he did go through a coming of age period, or at least began to find the strength he will need to make a place for himself.

This is the story of an extraordinary young man. A teenager who sees things differently, and thinks about what it is he sees. Really thinks. And finds understanding. He show more grows up in a family where he is embraced by his mother and sister for who he is, and who he can be. He is taught in an environment where there is no judgement, just unconditional acceptance. When the time comes for him to be tested, these all serve him well in finding his strength, his place in the world, his happiness and perhaps his love.

Marcello drew me in immediately. He and his family mattered to me. I so wanted him to be more than fiction, and I am sure that somewhere, he is. Marcello in the Real World is a wonderful book. I read it in one long session, because i couldn't make myself leave. I had to know how he faired. I couldn't step away before reaching the end of his story. But as with all good stories, there is no ending here. It is all about beginnings. show less

This book was very sweet, written in a style closer to classic children's literature than YA. I don't mean that it's more appropriate for a middle-grade audience, but that larger than life characters and the sense of an authorial voice behind Marcelo's remind me more of, say, Louis Sachar than John Green.

Marcelo's voice is very likable and engaging, and his journey into the world of corporate law makes for a story with more genuine moral ambiguity than a lot of young adult literature. Most of the other characters are not as complex and their dialogue is frankly unbelievable, but Stork is so masterful a writer that I was able to read past the lack of realism (which is rare for me!)

As for depicting a person on the autism spectrum, I show more thought Stork did a good job making Marcelo identifiable as a person with Asperger's but more than the sum of his symptoms. He does sort of fit into the "morally outstanding person with a disability" cliche, but I think Stork did a good job showing that this is just Marcelo's personality and not an inevitable result of his disability. However, I'll leave it to other readers to decide if this book had issues that I'm overlooking. show less

The real world is a cold, hard place. That's the lesson Marcelo quickly learns. At age 17, he's grown up in the comfortable confines of a private school for developmentally-challenged children; in Marcelo's case, he has high-functioning autism, with a stilted manner of speaking and difficulties in following facial expressions or conversation. He expects to work the summer taking care of his beloved Haflinger ponies at his school when his father surprises him with two opportunities: Marcelo must spend the summer working at his father's prestigious law firm, or he must attend a normal high school for his senior year. If Marcelo does well at the law firm, he can choose which school to attend in the fall.

This young adult book gripped me by show more the throat, and not simply because Marcelo reminded me of my own young son. Marcelo has been sheltered, and then his exposure in the "real world" comes in the form of a shark tank: a cut-throat law firm, with bitter hatred between rival and constant sniping between divisions. Some of the scenes made me physically angry, complete with balled fists and a flushed face. I wanted to fight for Marcelo, but in the end, he didn't need me to fight for him. Marcelo emerges as a strong, resourceful young man. Yes, he has disadvantages in some ways, but he's on the right path, and one of his own making.

It's a very real book from a teen perspective, meaning it also delves into some sexual subject matter and language, along with the nature of God and moral rights and wrongs. Don't let that dissuade you. It's never preachy. This book is a thing of beauty. show less