The Boy from Aleppo Who Painted the War (29 page)

The flexibility of language, intricacy of detail, and gradual leaking in of Adam's emotional state and reactions provide us with a rich and varied inner world. This is a huge advance on Christopher Boone's comparative jaunt through his past and his neighbourhood to his mother's abode in London, counting red and yellow cars, drawing comfort from science and maths, drowning out sensory and social onslaughts, for the most part robotically failing to wrap his head around the concept of emotionality on both an external and internal level, and inadvertently leaving a trail of turmoil in his wake.

But for me, the biggest strength of the story was the inextricable and natural flow of Adam's narration. His perspective is spread evenly, but is also flexible: the particulars of his voice are at times necessarily eclipsed by more objective descriptions when the picture widens. His style becomes smoother and more integrated as time goes on, in keeping with his love of language. This gives the work great significance in its expansion of the constraints often placed upon an alleged ‘Asperger voice' – a voice which tends to be stereotyped as emotionally flat, grating and stilted. The three sections narrated by Yasmine allow us to compare Adam's voice with a ‘neurotypical' voice, and to see that it does not exist in a stylistic vacuum. Like Adam, Yasmine frequently employs short, literal sentences – interspersed with more elastic, creative, metaphorical language, thoughts and imagery – when describing her immediate impressions. This not only challenges stereotypes about the ‘Asperger voice'; it provides touching but unobtrusive insight into why these two characters are so close.

In
The Curious Incident
, Christopher often breaks off to explain his views on subjects such as lying, communication, figurative speech and instructions, his behaviour problems, his personal beliefs and his school and classmates, before plunging back into the story – which itself revolves around his problems and the strain they place on other people. I was glad to discover a more balanced representation of the condition's perks and difficulties in the character of Adam, and to not feel as if his Asperger's was being ‘proven' through expositional detail. It was also a relief not to have the text broken up by diagrams and images, although it was interesting to guess from the chapter titles (each a single colour), where the emotional arc might be heading next. I was almost always wrong in my guesses, and whilst actual developments hit hard, it felt right that I should be pulled around, as this too would be part of living through a war.

The Boy from Aleppo…
is not
The Curious Incident…
or a re-hash of any other fiction dealing with disability or conflict. Neither is it a didactic story which functions as a sugar-coated, pre-packaged, focussed lesson with an agenda. The ground it treads has never been covered in quite this way before. Asperger's weaves its way inextricably throughout the whole work in a refreshing, empathetic and realistically multi-layered portrayal. The story deserves to be approached in its own right.

Laura Guthrie

August 2014

Glasgow, Scotland

For their support and belief in me, many thanks to my loving parents. Without your wisdom I wouldn't be half way here.

To my Song, thank you for your love, patience and the many hours you have spent working with me. I will always be grateful for everything you've done.

A huge thank you to my wonderful friends Iulia Avram, Tone Troen and Tharmim Azzid for their constant humour, and good-hearted nature. You always knew how to lift my spirits.

Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to Todd Swift for believing in me and showing me a great deal of understanding. You helped me believe in myself.

Adhan — Call to prayer

Baklawa — Sweet pastry

Eid — An Islamic festival

Enta Malak — You're an angel

Habibi — My love

Khalas — That's it / end of conversation

Khanjar — Sword

Labna — Strained yoghurt

Makkah — Mecca

Miswak — Teeth cleaning twig / Islamic toothbrush

Ota — Cat

PBUH — Peace be upon him

Prophet Suleiman — Prophet Solomon

Sahlab — Hot milk and Salep dessert

Sheikhs — Islamic scholars

Surat Al-Fatiha — First verse from the Quran

Wudhu — Ablution before prayer

Yalla — Come on

Ya Kalb — You dog - derogatory term