Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm reading the latest Stephen King novel "End of Watch" - the final book in the Mr Mercedes trilogy. There's a character in it called Holly who's obviously Autistic, but this isn't acknowledged and most people except for the main characters - who all love her obviously - can't understand her behaviour and treat her unkindly. Has anyone else read this book? I can't work out if the author is trying to get the reader to discover that this character is Autistic, and so give them an idea of what it's like to be "different"? Why would an author write an autistic character into a story and then not make it clear that is what they are?
I'm currently listening to this novel in audio book format and yes, I noticed that Holly seemed to a bit autistic.
Stephen King seems to know some of the traits of autism and I'm wondering if it's because he himself has them.
He mentions at one point that Holly and her parents didn't get along and they thought she was a bit 'mad' so that would support the view she could have been autistic and also that most people do not understand autism and often think it's a form of something else.
But the ex-detective who relies on her admires her abilities in terms of computer skills and her persistence in finding out stuff he needs.
The Holly character reminded me a bit if the kids in 'the loser's club' in his novel 'IT', where the members of the aforementioned seemed to have in common 'special talents' which brought them together to fend off bullies. Presumably, they were supposed to be 'oddballs' and actually, they all seemed to go on to become successful in life because of their abilities (the story is told in retrospect, of course, and interestingly, one of them became a famous horror novel author, just like King himself).
But I haven't yet finished 'End of Watch' so I'm not really in a position to offer a complete view at the moment but I will get back to you, Pixiefox.