THE DEVIL HOLE

by Eleanor Spence ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 1977

Beware: the Devil Hole--a dread ravine on the Australian coast--is something of a booby trap; it takes on symbolic significance to Douglas because his delay there worries his mother and ""could have started the baby""--but it's the baby born prematurely, autistic Carl, that's the focal point of a story patently about the damaging effects of such a youngster on a normally stress-prone family. At first slow and unruly, Carl grows into a screaming, rampaging three-year-old monster. So that he can have special schooling, the family moves to Sydney--and increasingly disintegrates. Older brother Kenneth, a disaffected fifteen, joins up with the local ""Jesus freaks,"" younger sister Adrienne takes refuge in television, while Douglas, now thirteen, actually has the best of it--a chance to attend the music school where his mentor, Daniel Mead, teaches. The solidly sympathetic young Meads, in turn, have a friend who teaches at Carl's school; and it is she who, in the last chapter, explains Carl's condition to Douglas--reminding him, the while, of his own incidental gain. We've learned with Douglas that living with an autistic child can be hell; but we haven't learned much--because he hasn't--about the methods of treating such children. A hopeless situation mistakable for an adventure is hard to accept as a work of fiction, however well-intended.

Pub Date: April 4, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1977

Categories: FICTION