Saving Max

Antoinette van Heugten

Review is by Molly

Antoinette van Heugten’s Saving Max begins as Danielle Parkman, successful attorney, mother of teenaged Asperger beleaguered Max realizes she must act quickly if Max is going to have any future at all.  After a series of disappointing social problems as plague most who exhibit symptoms of the high functioning autism condition known as Asperger Syndrome; Max has retreated into a world seemingly controlled by his cell phone, his computer and the recently located journal in which he writes in vivid detail his planned suicide.

Admission to Maitland Psychiatric Asylum will take Max and Danielle from New York to Des Moines to Plano.  Max will be housed, at least for a time in a secure unit, allowing no unauthorized persons in and requiring a pass for getting out.

Danielle’s life soon is filled with visits to the hospital, a growing friendship with another Maitland patient mother, and visits with doctors as Max begins to show unexpected downturns rather than improvement.  The cycle continues until at last another patient is found dead and Max is thought to be the one who killed him.  And, not only Max, but Danielle herself is implicated in the death.

With the singled minded focus and intensity of a mother who knows her child could not have committed this fatality, no matter how the circumstances may appear, Danielle sets out to find the actual killer, get the evidence and expose the murderer so that she can clear Max, and herself, from any suspicion. 

At last, with not a little courtroom drama, and more than a few surprising twists; the case against Max and Danielle is resolved, the murderer is revealed and Max and Danielle can begin a new, happier period in their lives.

Max is finally correctly diagnosed, he suffers from bi polar disorder, something easily treated when it is properly diagnosed and becomes the sweet young man Danielle has always known was possible.  Max and Danielle’s lawyer becomes much more than just friend or lawyer and life appears to be heading into nothing but smooth sailing and no worry.

Be ready for a surprise in the final paragraph.

I enjoyed reading Antoinette van Heugten’s Saving Max, it is not always easy to read, disability and children are not always something easily faced.  As a teacher I have begun to see children diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome in my classroom; this is something of a new experience for me.  I suppose that we did have children with undiagnosed Asperger during the earlier years of my career, however during the recent five years following my return to teaching I have had two such students.  Perhaps the problem is on the upswing, or perhaps it is simply diagnosed more correctly today.

Saving Max is a novel rooted in solid understanding of the subject the writer has chosen, is well written, filled with lots of specificity and detail and moves forward at breathless pace carrying the reader along on a mad roller coaster of action, anticipation, despair and optimism.

On the other hand, writer van Heugten’s fast paced work is not necessarily based on a particular case even though the writer, a lawyer and parent of a child diagnosed as Asperger Syndrome knows well symptoms, medications, behaviors, social problems for parents and children with disability as well as courtroom procedure and drama.  While Max and Danielle are central to the tale it is Asperger itself that becomes the true focus for the work.

For review I was sent an ARC for review by a publicist.