A welcome long weekend enabled this reviewer to read Fiona Higgins’ fourth and best novel yet in an uninterrupted day-and-a-half. This devastatingly beautiful story of family and a boy who defies labels is surely the most satisfying and uplifting novel I’ve read this year. An Unusual Boy superbly examines the dangers of children’s unfettered internet access as well as the perils of labelling or judging those we consider different or atypical.
Fiona Higgins
Eleven-year-old Jackson Curtis lives with his music therapist mother Julia and two sisters on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. His father Andy is overseas on business more than he’s at home so Julia juggles the household and parenting mostly on her own, though with some not-always-welcome assistance from her mother-in-law, Pamela.
Jackson’s neurodiversity is certainly Julia’s greatest challenge. Parenting a growing boy’s emotional development can be difficult at the best of times. Jackson, however, is not like other children. Despite assessments from multiple specialists, diagnosis of his condition remains elusive. Clearly, he is intelligent with a phenomenal memory but his mind is “literal and linear” and he often has difficulty finding the right words to communicate cohesively with his interlocutors. Wherever Jackson sits on the spectrum, he certainly does not function mentally the way that most would consider ‘normal’.
He develops a passion for chess, soccer and dance but, as he’s considered strange by his peers, he has few friends. When his soccer teammate Digby invites him over for an afternoon’s play, Jackson – and Julia – are delighted. Digby, however, has dark issues of his own which lead to a school incident involving Jackson that threatens his entire future and turns the Curtis family’s world upside-down, culminating in a police investigation and communal estrangement.
Higgins provides a vivid and well-rounded supporting cast of characters who stand by the beleaguered Curtises – dance teacher Miss Marion, soccer coach Steve and teenage Milla Curtis’ surfer boyfriend Riley. All play a crucial role in the resolution of this palpable suburban crisis which would be any parent’s nightmare.
Suggested book club questions included at the end of the novel help to make this a dream choice for any discussion group that will surely be left questioning assumptions about normalcy. The quote that arguably resonates the most is from Nanna Pam who reminds Milla, “Normal doesn’t exist, darling. It’s just a cycle on the washing machine”.
—An Unusual Boy by Fiona Higgins (Boldwood Books) is out now.
An Unusual Boy
Meet Jackson - a very unusual boy in a world that prefers 'normal'... Julia Curtis is a busy mother of three, with a husband often away for work, an ever-present mother-in-law, a career, and a house that needs doing up. Her fourteen-year-old daughter, Milla, has fallen in love for the first time, and her youngest, Ruby, is a nine-year-old fashionista who can out-negotiate anyone.
But Julia's eleven-year-old son, Jackson, is different. Different to his sisters. Different to his classmates. In fact, Jackson is...
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