Craig Lancaster’s novel, 600 Hours of Edward (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $3.99 and currently FREE for Amazon Prime members to borrow from the Prime Lending Library, Whispersync for Voice enabled), is described on Amazon as follows:
A thirty-nine-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Edward Stanton lives alone on a rigid schedule in the Montana town where he grew up. His carefully constructed routine includes tracking his most common waking time (7:38 a.m.), refusing to start his therapy sessions even a minute before the appointed hour (10:00 a.m.), and watching one episode of the 1960s cop show Dragnet each night (10:00 p.m.). But when a single mother and her nine-year-old son move in across the street, Edward’s timetable comes undone. Over the course of a momentous 600 hours, he opens up to his new neighbors and confronts old grievances with his estranged parents. Exposed to both the joys and heartaches of friendship, Edward must ultimately decide whether to embrace the world outside his door or retreat to his solitary ways.
Having read this touching book myself, I don’t think I would’ve described it that way. While it’s true that Edward’s contact with his new neighbors leads to certain incidents that challenge his routines and assumptions, they were just part of a whole set of circumstances that lead to major growth on Edward’s part. Also, I’d hate for anyone reading the description to think Edward is merely a retread of the movie, As Good As It Gets, with some kind of inevitable romantic component.
This book provides much greater insight to the emotional states and thought processes of people like Edward who are coping with OCD, Asperger’s Syndrome, or any autism-spectrum disorders. Where As Good As It Gets almost romanticizes OCD and social anxiety disorder as charming quirks, Edward takes a much more realistic tack, showing readers how the life of someone like Edward is entirely controlled by his disorders. It also allows the reader to understand why someone like Edward can’t just “get over it,” because their minds work entirely differently from everyone else.
600 Hours of Edward author Craig Lancaster was kind enough to answer some questions for Kindle Fire on Kindle Nation Daily:
KF on KND: You seem to have a great deal of insight to Asperger’s, OCD and possibly autism spectrum disorders in general. Have any of these disorders touched your own life, and if so, did those experiences inspire you to write the book?
CL: Most of my direct interaction with the disorders has come since the book was published. I knew a few people with Asperger’s and suspected it in the case of a few others, but there was no direct inspiration. When I conceived of Edward — and I almost always start with a character and then build from there — it was pretty obvious to me that Asperger’s/OCD would be what he was dealing with. I limited my research to broad concepts, like behaviors and traits, because the last thing I wanted was to write a clinical book. Once I had him on his way, I just followed him.
KF on KND: How did you go about getting into the mindset of someone like Edward, whose emotional states and thought processes are so foreign to most people?
CL: I’m not sure I can explain it, to tell you the truth. From the very start, Edward was easy for me to inhabit. I’d sit down, close my eyes and enter his world. A lot of the mental connections he makes came from my own thought processes. I don’t know that I’m unusual in the comparisons I make or the way in which my brain moves from one thing to another, but in any case, it was often hard to tell where I stopped and he began in the writing. I’ve written a lot of characters since Edward, and it’s never been that easy since.
KF on KND: Did you find it a challenge to make Edward a sympathetic and relatable character? How did you avoid a characterization that would’ve come across as merely pathetic, or weird, to the average reader?
CL: The biggest thing I wanted to avoid was making Edward the butt of the joke. It’s a funny book — partly because of how he responds to stimuli, and partly because he’s mostly without guile. There’s a part in the book where he’s had a sexual dream, and he’s relating the story of what happens, which ends with “Also, my balls ache.” I hear from a lot of people who laugh and laugh at this line, because he delivers it straight. His balls really do ache.
Some of the criticisms I’ve seen of the book center on how repetitive Edward is. I take that as a compliment, because that’s precisely what I wanted to present. With any story I write, my goal is to give readers a true emotional experience. I don’t really care what the experience is–the beauty of stories is that they affect different people in different ways. As long as the reactions are true, that I haven’t overstepped into manipulation, I feel like I’ve held up my end of the author-reader partnership.
KF on KND: Have you heard the As Good As It Gets comparison before, and if so, how do you respond to it?
CL: I have heard it. I guess it was inevitable, but I don’t really see it. Nicholson’s character is a jerk who, it turns out after two uncomfortable hours, has a heart. Edward’s heart is evident from the start.
KF on KND: Did you write Edward partly with a specific goal of raising awareness and understanding of people with disorders like Edward’s?
CL: I didn’t. I’ve been thrilled to get to know folks who are dealing with these things in a very real way, but I just wanted to write a story. I end up saying this a lot: Edward’s developmental disability is a part of him, but it’s not the definition of him. I hope that folks find a lot more depth to him and to the other characters in the story.
KF on KND: You’ve written a follow-up, Edward Adrift, which is currently available for pre-order. What can you tell us about it?
CL: For a long time, I swore I wouldn’t write a sequel. The way 600 HOURS OF EDWARD ends seemed complete to me, as if I’d opened a window on his life and then closed it at the right time, leaving the questions of where he goes and what he does open to each reader’s interpretation.
But I’ve lived with Edward for a while now, and eventually I became as curious as a lot of readers. When 600 HOURS closes, Edward seems to be on a trajectory that suggests a fuller, more satisfying life is coming his way. In EDWARD ADRIFT, it’s three years on, and those of us who have lived through some ups and downs — which is to say, all of us — know that a lot can happen in three years …
600 Hours of Edward – highly recommended for anyone who’s looking for a realistic view into the world and mind of someone who has OCD, Asperger’s Syndrome or an autism spectrum disorder, as well as for anyone who enjoys quiet, character-driven drama.