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Recommended reading by the National Mental Health Association.    To his mother, twelve-year-old Benjamin Sherman is an object of pity and anxiety. To his father, he is bizarre and embarrassing. To his psychiatrist, he is a case study in mental illness. To the counselors at the camp where he is spending his summer, Benjamin is a "freaky kid" who shuns his peers and is strangely--and perhaps dangerously--attached to his best friend, Elliot, a stuffed letter H.   Through the letters of his show more sister, mother, father, camp counselors, and psychiatrist--and, most touchingly, through those Benjamin writes to Elliot--this audacious and utterly unsentimental novel gives us a moving and sometimes shocking intimacy with a child whose disorder may be a kind of fragile genius. H is an astute, sympathetic evocation of the state we persist in calling "madness."   "A new and mind-boggling perspective on mental illness from the point of view of the sufferer and those who would love and care about him. . . . H is a very poignant, enthralling debut."--The Boston Globe   "Shepard is a reverse archaeologist, designing a tiny contemporary lost world for readers to excavate. . . . Everything matters. . . Shepard gets everything right."--New York magazine show less

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4 reviews
In a nutshell: H is an epistolary novel about a 12 year old boy named Benjamin. In the first third of the book (50+ pages) it is through a series of letters written by his parents and sister, a therapist and camp employees that we learn Benjamin has mental issues (Autism? Depression? Bipolar? It's never fully explained.). For the rest of the book Benjamin gets to speak for himself via letters to "Elliot" his female stuffed letter H. These letters, found hidden under his camp bed, reveal just how disturbed Benjamin's thoughts can be. After camp his condition worsens and he is sent to a psychiatric hospital where, under doctor supervision, he is finally medicated. But is he cured? Or is there such a thing as cured?
For anyone who ever had an imaginary friend or who liked bagel pizzas. What I love about this book is that it blurs the line between a realistic look at an autistic kid and a fantasy/science fiction novel. It combines the two genres seamlessly. If you enjoyed "The Curious Inccident..." and have a stomach for science fiction search out a copy of this novel.
Very odd book on mental illness from the viewpoint of a child. Not as amusing as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime, but not bad.
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Author Information

4 Works 91 Members

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Suspense & Thriller
DDC/MDS
813.54Literature & rhetoricAmerican literature in EnglishAmerican fiction in English1900-19991945-1999
LCC
PS3569 .H393834 .H2Language and LiteratureAmerican literatureAmerican literatureIndividual authors1961-
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Members
75
Popularity
421,033
Reviews
4
Rating
(4.10)
Languages
English
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
3
ASINs
1