Love Anthony

My book club read Love Anthony by Lisa Genova.  I was the discussion leader this month and was the person who presented this book as one we could talk about.  Our group had already read two other Genova novels, Left Neglected and Still Alice.  We had a great discussion. I am always amazed how many people know someone on the autism spectrum.  This novel focuses on two women.  Olivia has a son who has autism.  Lisa has three girls and her husband is unfaithful.  Lisa writes a book about a boy with autism.  The thoughts from Anthony written by Lisa are few and I craved more but that is the thing about people with Autism.  Communication is such a barrier there is no way to know what goes on inside their heads.  I started out with an ice breaker activity where I read quotes from the book and people had to guess who said that quote and what page it was on.  I thought it would be very challenging. I was amazed how well the group did.  One fellow had his e-reader and he could search for the passage electronically.  That is a handy feature.  I had to skim the paperback book 6 times before I found all the answers.  I had a list of discussion questions to ask but I never got around to all of them because the group kept the conversation flying by themselves.  One lady in particular was excellent at the quotes and gave amazingly close guesses on the page numbers as well.  She happens to have a grandchild diagnosed with Autism just two weeks ago.  She was very eager to learn all about autism. In any case, the evening flew by as time does when you're having fun.  Maybe I was a bit more enthusiastic because autism is a topic near and dear to me. Maybe I have come to know and cherish all the men and women in this group of book lovers.  One question I did ask is why the author placed it on Nantucket Island instead of, say, Chicago.  One woman answered that Olivia was trying to get away from life so she had to choose a remote place like Nantucket. She added that the isolation of the island also represented Anthony's isolation from all the people in his world.  Whoa!  Deep!