On being an autism parent according to Cammie McGovern’s ‘Eye Contact’

In his Guardian review of five new autism books, Adam Feinstein notes this about the author of Eye Contact, Cammie McGovern:

McGovern says she got the idea for writing the book when her son was four and began repeating snippets from his favourite videos. She wondered what would happen if he held a secret and a whole community was hanging on his words. The author’s aim was to show that there was an important role for autistic children to play in the world, and this engaging novel, featuring a boy who holds the key to a horrific crime, succeeds admirably in her uplifting intention.

The autistic child in Eye Contact, Adam, has been the witness to the killing of Amelia, a student in his special education class and it is through his mother Cara’s careful “detective work” that his knowledge of what happened can be revealed (as I wrote in this post).

My own son Charlie is verbal, but minimally (he tends to speak in one or two word phrases rather than full sentences and, as his articulation is often poor, it is not always clear what he is saying). More often than not I will look at him with a certain open, inquisitive look in his face and I do wonder, “what would happen if he held a secret and a whole community was hanging on his words”?

Indeed, trying to interpret Charlie’s behavior and snippets of speech is something I have to do everyday. I have been calling McGovern’s Eye Contact a “mystery novel with an autistic child,” but I think more and more that the book is simply a great book about autism—about what the daily detective story of life with my lovely autistic son, Charlie.