The Way Things Look to Poppyshake

Synopsis: At 23, Asif is less than he wanted to be. His mother's sudden death forced him back home to look after his youngest sister, Yasmin, and he leads a frustrating life, ruled by her exacting need for routine. Everyone tells Asif that he's a good boy, but he isn't so sure. Lila has escaped from home, abandoning Asif to be the sole carer of their difficult sister. Damaged by a childhood of uneven treatment, as Yasmin's needs always came first, she leads a wayward existence, drifting between jobs and men, obsessed with her looks and certain that her value is only skin deep. And then there is Yasmin, who has no idea of the resentment she has caused. Who sees music in colour and remembers so much that sometimes her head hurts. Who doesn't feel happy, but who knows that she is special. Who has a devastating plan. "The Way Things Look To Me" is an affecting, comically tender portrayal of a family in crisis, caught between duty and love in a tangled relationship both bitter and bittersweet.

Review: I liked this story but I didn't love it, it didn't seem to hold my interest. The story centres around Yasmin who has Aspergers and her two older siblings, Asif and Lila.

Since their parents death it has become Asif's job to look after Yasmin. This he does with extreme care and thoughtfulness. Lila on the other hand is more resentful, calling Yasmin 's*dding Raingirl' and embracing her with bear-hugs which she knows will make her uncomfortable (she also wears a t-shirt with a slogan that is mis-spelt knowing it upset's Yasmin's organised brain).Lila doesn't live at the family home anymore, she lives in a squalid flat which resembles a rubbish tip (a reaction to the tidy and ordered life that Yasmin has imposed on everybody at home). She has an untidy love-life and debilitating eczema. Both Lila and Asif are resentful that their Mother lavished so much time and attention on making sure Yas was ok, that she seemed to overlook their wants and needs. They both have inferiority complexes, Asif feels unworthy to be loved and Lila self harms.

Yasmin, unaware of any of this, is living a life so scheduled and organised that the slightest change causes her extreme anguish. She eats only yellow food for breakfast, she repeatedly watches episodes of 'The Simpson's' on DVD and plays 'Doom' on her computer. She always wins at 'Scrabble' because she knows all the correct high scoring two letter words and when she hears music she see's it expressed in colour. She's not happy though and she doesn't feel hopeful. A TV production wants to film a documentary about Yasmin, Lila is totally against it, Asif is worried about it, but Yasmin, unpredictably, want's to do it.

Although a lot of the book is humorous, Yasmin's story is sad and I often felt moved to tears by it. Just reading simple things like the fact that she has to repeat to herself 'one Mississippi, two Mississippi' to remind herself of how long to keep eye contact for, when someone is talking to her, and how she had to have circles drawn for her on the lawn, to represent different people's 'personal space' ... differentiating between family, friends, acquaintances and strangers.

I wasn't so keen on Asif and Lila's stories, the bit's that didn't involve Yasmin ... Lila's especially. I don't know what it was, it seemed a bit lightweight and predictable, a bit soap-opera, and my interest flagged a little. I didn't know how Yasmin's story would pan out and I found I was far more interested in her than the other's.