Upward Bound

Brown’s compassionate debut delves with great insight into the lives and minds of the disabled residents of an adult day care center in Southern California. Each chapter tells a client or staff member’s story, and together they reveal a hidden world of the disenfranchised. Walter, autistic and nonspeaking, introduces readers to the ironically named facility, Upward Bound. His mother’s support and schooling enabled him to communicate with a letter board and attend college, but his dream of becoming a novelist faded after his father’s death and his mother’s return to work, leaving him without the necessary support (“Autism on my end of the spectrum is like ADHD times a thousand,” he explains). Jorge, his friend for 20 years who is also nonspeaking, had less nurture growing up, but he’s formed a special bond with Carlos, a staffer who hid a felonious past in order to get the gig, and who deeply empathizes with the clients (“Twenty-eight disabled adults whose lives were being spent in shabby boredom represented to Carlos the wastage of twenty-eight glorious galaxies”). There’s also Tom, who is nonspeaking, has cerebral palsy, and uses a wheelchair. His movie-star good looks attract the attention of Ann, a college student hired as a lifeguard at the facility’s pool who is at first frightened by her charges, then comes to embrace them. The author, who is nonspeaking and autistic, captures the humanity of his characters, particularly through Walter, who explains, “The story of my people isn’t being told, or it’s being told wrong. No neurotypical person can tell this story.” This captivating work illuminates a world too often ignored. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, Wylie Agency. (Mar.)