…Marcelo Sandoval is the bravest, most original hero I've met in years…The reader's conflict—rooting for Marcelo to succeed yet unsure what success actually means for him—energizes Marcelo in the Real World, a brisk, brilliant, unsentimental novel…Marcelo is smart, thoughtful, decent, good-looking without knowing it. A great kid, just a little different. Must he be challenged to be fulfilled, emotionally endangered to match someone's idea of fitting in? The psychological and moral concerns of the novel are so marbled into the story that they never overwhelm it, making Marcelo in the Real World not only an important new young adult novel but a pleasure to read.
—The New York Times
Part coming-of-age story, part mystery and wholly compelling, this novel takes readers into the mind of a young man who can "perceive more of reality than others." Marcelo proves a wise and unwittingly humorous companion as he navigates the complex relationships, workaday concerns and ethical dilemmas of the real world.
—The Washington Post
Artfully crafted characters form the heart of Stork's (The Way of the Jaguar) judicious novel. Marcelo Sandoval, a 17-year-old with an Asperger's-like condition, has arranged a job caring for ponies at his special school's therapeutic-riding stables. But he is forced to exit his comfort zone when his high-powered father steers Marcelo to work in his law firm's mailroom (in return, Marcelo can decide whether to stay in special ed, as he prefers, or be mainstreamed for his senior year). Narrating with characteristically flat inflections and frequently forgetting to use the first person, Marcelo manifests his anomalies: he harbors an obsession with religion (he regularly meets with a plainspoken female rabbi, though he's not Jewish); hears "internal" music; and sleeps in a tree house. Readers enter his private world as he navigates the unfamiliar realm of menial tasks and office politics with the ingenuity of a child, his voice never straying from authenticity even as the summer strips away some of his differences. Stork introduces ethical dilemmas, the possibility of love, and other "real world" conflicts, all the while preserving the integrity of his characterizations and intensifying the novel's psychological and emotional stakes. Not to be missed. Ages 14-up. (Mar.)
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Gr 8 Up
Like Christopher Boone, the protagonist in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Doubleday, 2003), Marcelo Sandoval is a high-functioning, extremely self-aware teenager with Asperger's syndrome. He has an empathetic mother and a father, Arturo, who appears to be less empathetic as he pushes Marcelo to live in the "real world." The form the real world takes is a summer job in the mailroom at Arturo's law office. The teen is forced to think on his feet, multitask, and deal with duplicitous people who try to take advantage of him. Over the course of a summer, Marcelo learns that he can function in society; he is especially surprised to find that he can learn to read people's expressions, even to the point of knowing whom he can and cannot trust. Writing in a first-person narrative, Stork does an amazing job of entering Marcelo's consciousness and presenting him as a dynamic, sympathetic, and wholly believable character. At a little over 300 pages, the story drags at some points, bogging down in the middle. However, the dilemmas that Marcelo faces are told in a compelling fashion, which helps to keep readers engaged.-Wendy Smith-D'Arezzo, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD
In what turns out to be considerably more than just another tale told by an intelligent narrator with a spectrum disorder, 17-year-old Marcelo Sandoval gets a life-changing taste of the "real world" when he's forced to take a summer job in his father's law firm. Comfortable with his limitations but still anxious, Marcelo strikes gold immediately when Jasmine, his supervisor in the Mail Room, turns out to be an uncommonly perceptive young woman-unlike Wendell, the sex-obsessed son of his father's slimeball legal partner. Vicious office intrigues, Marcelo's long-standing fascination with religious thought and his discovery of a damning piece of suppressed evidence in a case involving his father's biggest corporate client all lead to a series of short but deep heart-to-heart conversations about ethics, God's will and other big questions. In the end Marcelo keeps his feet amid strong emotional currents, makes the hard choices and even maps out a personal future that wasn't at all clear earlier on. Making good on the promise of his Way of the Jaguar (2000), Stork delivers a powerful tale populated by appealing (and decidedly unappealing) characters and rich in emotional nuance. (Fiction. YA)
Stork introduces ethical dilemmas, the possibility of love, and other “real world” conflicts, all the while preserving the integrity of his characterizations and intensifying the novel's psychological and emotional stakes. Not to be missed.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review“…Stork delivers a powerful tale populated by appealing (and decidedly unappealing) characters and rich in emotional nuance.” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review“Writing in a first-person narrative, Stork does an amazing job of entering Marcelo's consciousness and presenting him as a dynamic, sympathetic, and wholly believable character." — School Library Journal, starred review“It is the rare novel that reaffirms a belief in goodness; rarer still is one that does so this emphatically.” — Horn Book, starred review“Shot with spirtualism, laced with love, and fraught with conundrums, this book, like Marcelo himself, surprises.” — Booklist, starred review“[I]n the skillful hands of Francisco X. Stork, 17-year-old Marcelo Sandoval is the bravest, most original hero I've met in years…[A] brisk, brilliant, unsentimental novel…” — New York Times“Part coming-of-age story, part mystery and wholly compelling…” — Washington Post“While several recent books have used the conceit of an autistic protagonist, this thoughtful novel full of complicated characters is unique.” — Chicago Sun-Times“Stork has written a beautiful study of the loss of innocence, as the questions Marcelo confronts are ones everyone has to grapple with in some form or other…” — Los Angeles Times
What a marvelous story! Narrator Lincoln Hoppe finds his way into this teen’s struggle with Asperger's syndrome with a soft hesitancy that's at once appealing and believable. Seventeen-year-old Marcelo must work in his father’s law office for the summer in order to return to the special needs school where he feels so comfortable. Dad is about to get more than he bargained for. Hoppe breezes through the myriad situations encountered by this unusual young man in the intense environment of a Boston legal firm while capturing Marcelo's innocence with a delicate subtlety that remains pitch-perfect throughout. Part love story, part legal drama, the story of Marcelo features an old-fashioned search for justice that will make listeners stand up and cheer. D.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
