Books

In Marisa Silver's second novel, The God of War, the tangle of cause and effect that leads to the death of a foster home problem child offers insight into the sadness and struggles of our autistic nation. With this forlorn and timely story, Ms. Silver strips away the strata of statistics and reveals the cost of autism and the burden of this shame.

Like any good mystery novel, The God of War begins with a crime announced at the outset, the identities of both killer and victim left unstated, with the implication that by the book's end we will know the answers to both who and why. More in keeping with a classic such as John Knowles' A Separate Peace than any ordinary whodunit, the book follows its tease with descriptions of a splintered, oddball world rich in meaning and metaphor.

Set in the Southern California desert surrounding the Salton Sea, the story is told in first-person narrative by Ares Ramirez, a hard-luck boy almost 13 years old. Ares' flighty and woebegone mother, Laurel, is a masseuse in Palm Springs, wavering between bouts of irrational optimism and despair. They live in a trailer full of clutter and anguish.

Her youngest child, 6-year-old Malcolm, has all the symptoms of autism: He can't communicate with others, has difficulty at school and screams when touched. He fails to make emotional connections even with Ares, who often ends up taking care of him as Laurel struggles to support the family.

Laurel's feckless boyfriend, Richard, is a local artist who fathers another child with her. He's a good yet obviously unreliable man, while Laurel is a loving yet obviously reckless mother.

After Malcolm scratches a classmate and bites a teacher, the school district compels him to take therapy sessions with the librarian, Mrs. Poole, a kindhearted woman with family problems of her own. Her 15-year-old foster son, Kevin, has been sent to a "Juvenile Improvement Center" for giving her a black eye. He's soon released, and strikes up a warped friendship with Ares, for whom he proves to be a bad influence.

One thing after another goes wrong: Ares becomes a thief and does drugs. He tries to impress his new friend by showing off a gun he found in the desert. The crime announced at the outset comes to fruition, and sadly, all share the guilt.

It's a heartbreaking story in the coming-of-age tradition, and at the end, fast-forwards in time to reveal the shards of a broken family and reaches for redemption: By describing his pain, Ares triumphs over his own metaphorical autism.

William J. Cobb's latest novel, Goodnight, Texas, is now in paperback.

Marisa Silver

(Simon & Schuster; $23)

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