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 unique perception of reality, 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 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.

~from back cover

 

 

 

 

Seventeen year old Marcelo (pronounced "Marselo") is described as having an "autism-like" condition. That's as close as doctors can come to defining his unique gift of being able to hear music where no one else can. Unfortunately for Marcelo, his father doesn't see anything particularly rare or special about his son's gift. Instead, the father pushes Marcelo to take a job in the mailroom of his law firm --- dad's reasoning being that the position will teach Marcelo useful skills about "the real world"  and put him on the path to success, rather than let his mind run away with creative dreamer fancies. 

 

Once in the mailroom environment, Marcelo meets and befriends the lovely Jasmine and Wendell, the son of one of the partners at the law firm. As his father anticipated, the first days were an experience for Marcelo, to say the least, as another "autism-like" trait that Marcelo displays is a struggle with interpreting facial expressions. But thanks to classes Marcelo attends to help him learn tips & tricks to help him out with this (instruction in voice inflection, speech patterns, and the like), it actually doesn't take him too long to find his way. It's a tough time for the reader though. We have to watch Marcelo navigate around co-workers who assume he's mentally incompetent, or those who try to bully or take advantage of him because he can't immediate recognize that he is being tricked. This is the "real world" his father so desperately wanted him to be a part of... thanks, dad! 

 

 

"What's wrong with you, anyway? With the way you think. Your father said you had some kind of cognitive disorder."

 

"He said that." It surprises me to hear Arturo refer to me that way. He has always insisted that there's nothing wrong with me. The term "cognitive disorder" implies there is something wrong with the way I think or with the way I perceive reality. I perceive reality just fine. Sometimes I perceive more of reality than others.

 

Marcelo develops a love for religious texts and often turns to reading or reciting scripture to himself to calm his nerves when the world starts to overwhelm him. At one point, he finds himself unexpectedly caught up in one of his father's most important legal cases, one that will push Marcelo to fight for what he believes in, regardless of what others around him might say. 

 

After being published in 2009, in 2010 this novel was awarded the Schneider Family Book Award for Teen Fiction, an award that recognizes fiction that focuses on characters with disabilities. 

 

I've come across pages of glowing reviews for this one, and while I did very much enjoy it, I can't comfortably join the 5 star crowd here. The story had some dents for me. I loved Marcelo, the way his mind worked and his unique style of interacting with others even if he didn't (admittedly) always understand all the unspoken social cues. Something in that I found myself relating to quite a bit. His friendship with Jasmine was undeniably sweet and I found myself wishing he and Wendell could get on a bit better. So the characters undeniably spoke to me on some level. My trouble was with the writing. Some of the characters came off just a little too weirdly staccato in their speech and mannerisms for my enjoyment. The flow of things just felt a shade off from natural. In Marcelo's case it's understandable and almost expected, given that he's been diagnosed with a "autism-like" condition, but that doesn't explain the other characters!

 

Also, if I'm being honest with my reading experience... there was just something a little... lackluster... with the plot as a whole. I was all about this story in the early pages! Those first few chapters definitely had me hooked. But this was one of those books where I could feel my love and interest of it slowly trickling down instead of racing up. Reading pages on end and then realizing later, "you know, that was actually a whole lotta nothing going on"... and the book's not even that long! Still, I did quite like Stork's message here -- the way Marcelo finds his own voice in a sea of so many others telling him what he needs or what he should do --- it made me curious to try out some of Stork's other works just to compare, so I now have a couple on order. Even with the elements I myself found problematic, I would still solidly recommend this to anyone looking for YA reads featuring the theme of autism and enhanced abilities. 

 

Award-winning writer Francisco Stork on THE EAGLE TREE:

“A wonderful read! To say that the narrator's mind is unusual would not be correct. His mind is simply and marvelously unique like yours and mine. Or rather, like yours and mine could be if we lifted the eyes of our hope to the crowns of trees and listened to the voice of our neglected spirit. The Eagle Tree will remind of the beauty and truth you may have forgotten.”

-- Francisco X. Stork, award-winning author of Marcelo in the Real World

It's been a few days since I finished listening to this and when I think back, I get the feeling of "That was so sweet!" (Sweet like "Awwwww," not like "Dude! That's wicked/radical/awesome!")

I liked Marcelo. I wish I'd have known a few Marceloes when I was in high school. Maybe I did. I don't remember. Regardless, in my current life, I would like to know more people who could be objectively honest instead of saying words they think will best suit their needs. I would love to be able to count on someone's opinions. I'd like a Marcelo in my life, simply for that reason alone.

I understood my feelings about Marcelo - agreeing with his father that kids can't be sheltered if they're expected to survive life and that you don't know what you can do unless you're pushed to do it, though I didn't agree that ignoring a fact makes it obsolete. At the same time, Marcelo had such a precious gift (I don't say that lightly; I hate that term) and I knew it would be broken in the Real World. I didn't want that, either. Bittersweet. I'm not convinced the outcome was worth the price but I also don't think the opposite would have made me any happier. His situation was hard for my mind to resolve because I wanted both things for him even though there's no way that could happen.

I mostly liked Jasmine. I liked that she knew who she was, knew what she wanted, had plans, was patient, was a fighter when necessary. But sometimes she also irritated me. I kept seeing her as April from "Parks & Rec" - smart, capable, and sort of an angry plank. There's nothing wrong with the angry plank attitude but it's hard to connect with a character when you can't see or feel their emotions. Was that done to help us understand Marcelo's point of view? He can't connect with people's emotions unless they make those emotions very observable so was I feeling his frustration? Only, he understood Apri, um, Jasmine just fine. So that means his rudimentary emotional intelligence is a great deal higher than mine...which actually makes sense.

I loved that Wendell was the typical, all-American, entitled, white male d-bag. Yay! There was no effort to give that kid hidden depth, to make him relatable - he's the typical slimy bully that we all know and hate. Sometimes you just need a non-complicated character so that you can focus more on understanding everyone else.

It was nice to have a bit of a mystery to look forward to. It was also fun to watch Wendell's lame non-seduction of Jasmine because that was just doomed from the start. I sort of hoped he'd succeed with his nefarious plans only to be knifed in the face at the crucial moment (don't worry, that's not a spoiler or even an anti-spoiler) because he needs a face-knifing. I liked how Marcelo came to understand his father as well as his relationship with the man and how neither was what he'd thought; I think we all go through that at some point in our lives. He just handled it with a lot more grace than most of us. He's a good kid.

My biggest stumbling block was that I couldn't differentiate which things Marcelo would understand and which he wouldn't. He seemed to have a solid grasp on who he was, what he was like, and his anticipated reactions. But then sometimes he knew things about himself, about his situation that I wouldn't have expected him to know and, conversely, there were things that threw him that I felt he would have been prepared for or would have known in advance. No, I can't cite anything because I don't remember what had happened the couple of instances that happened. And now it sounds like I think every character has to stay in character. I don't think that, I was just struck at how some of Marcelo's reactions seemed illogical when compared to his previous reactions that may have run along the same lines. If that even makes sense.
It doesn't. I know. I am being very vague because I came to this review unprepared and I am trying to pull the wool over my eyes. I don't even know why I do that.

But I did enjoy this book. I do know that.

I had swapped this on a sudden whim and now, now I am completely baffled by how much I loved reading it. I have to clean the appartment and bake a tart, but I am still sitting around in my pajamas because I was shortening and shortening the minimum amount of time I need to get things done - only because I did not want to put Marcelo aside. His story has - much to my surprise - turned out to be powerfully addicting. Don't you love these little wonders you come across as an unsuspecting reader? Although I crave them, they shock me again and again.

This is another one I perhaps should have read instead of listened to. I didn't like the reader's voice and wasn't always sure when Marcelo was thinking or talking. He read slowly, which made sense for the character, but I ended up turning on the 2x speed on my ipod at times. It's a coming-of-age story about a young man with high functioning autism whose father requires him to work in his law firm for the summer to gain more experience of the "real world". He works through issues that most teenagers do in his own way. There was a more religion in it than I expected. The messages were important, but somehow I was dissatisfied with the story.