Borderline is a skewed coming-of-age story of a normal boy in a crazy world -- a fast-paced world of high-tech gismos, global air travel and antibiotics, a world in which high schools have replaced cafeterias with fast food counters and the scourges of autism, asthma, allergies, diabetes and obesity are the norm.
Still another novel about adolescent angst? Well, the protagonist is indeed going on thirteen and, with some justification, he is seriously stressed, but there this wonderful story diverges from the stereotype. Rampant hormones, peer pressure, romance -- all take a backseat as Guy Ritter wrestles with the challenge of attracting the attention of parents preoccupied with the demands of his autistic brother. And then there is the wolf, condemned to euthanasia unless Guy can find a way to spring him from a pen.
Adolescents will love this book, but there is much here for adult readers as well, including a short treatise on genetics and a graphic evocation of the consequences of a fast-food diet.
All of the characters in this story are interesting and believable: Guy’s mother, driven to distraction by the needs of her autistic son; his father, the geneticist, preoccupied with his experiments with wolves; a most unorthodox psychiatrist patiently seeking a breakthrough with a stubbornly unresponsive patient. And the most fascinating of all, Austin, who, at the age of five cannot speak but can take apart and re-assemble any electronic gadget, including the lock on a wolf’s cage.
Bonnie Rozanski has obviously done extensive research on genetics and on autism, and the novel offers a short treatise on each, but the enlightenment in no way detracts from the fast-moving plot and the engaging insights into the minds of pubescent boys. This novel will appeal to readers from twelve to ... well, whenever, if ever, the need to learn and to enjoy ceases.