Stuck in Neutral

May 29, 2000
First-time novelist Trueman raises ethical issues about euthanasia through the relationship between 14-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from cerebral palsy, and his father. In a conversational tone, narrator Shawn explains that when he was born, a tiny blood vessel burst in his brain, leaving him unable to control any of his muscles. What no one knows is that Shawn is a "secret genius" who, while unable to communicate, remembers everything he has ever heard. His condition, which includes violent seizures, overwhelmed his father, who moved out when Shawn was three years old; the man later won a Pulitzer Prize for a poem based on his experiences as parent to a victim of C.P. Weaving together memories with present-day accounts, Shawn describes the highs and lows of his day-to-day life as well as his father's increasing fascination with euthanasia and evidence that the man is working up the courage to personally "end pain." The strength of the novel lies in the father-son dynamic; the delicate scenes between them carefully illustrate their mutual quest to understand each other. The other characters (Shawn's brother and sister, mother, teachers) lack this complexity. As a result, many of the scenes feel more contrived than heartfelt ("I always feel so guilty complaining about it at all!" says his sister). All in all, the book's concepts are more compelling than the story line itself. Ages 10-up.

Imagine not being able to control a single movement of your body. This is life for Shawn, who has cerebral palsy. Most treat him like a vegetable, except for Shawn's dad, a poet, who is sensitive enough to intuit there is more to Shawn than meets the eye. The problem is that Shawn thinks his dad is going to kill him because of it--to release his son from this mortal coil and end his suffering, so to speak. Using the first-person narrative to his advantage, Johnny Heller adeptly voices the frustration Shawn feels at being incapable of communicating while expressing many of the same thoughts, feelings, and fears the average teenager has. Heller convincingly switches between the wry observant voice of 14-year-old Shawn to the emotionally charged voice of Shawn's divorced father, who feels a mixture of shame, guilt, and responsibility for Shawn's future--one they are both unsure of even to the final sentence. M.M.O. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine