By Kerryn Goldsworthy
The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr
Frances Maynard
Mantle, $29.99
Elvira Carr is 27 and lives at home with her overbearing mother. Elvira is neuro-atypical, and seems to suffer from some form of high-functioning autism. When her clever, bitter, controlling 72-year-old mother is felled by a stroke and ends up in a nursing home unable to say anything except her favourite phrase – "Not that way!" – Elvira must learn to live independently or be put into care herself. Since Elvira is the narrator, we see everything from her angle and get some insight into her troubles and anxieties as well as into her sweet nature. Frances Maynard has worked in the field of learning difficulties, so the reader has some confidence in her representation of a character such as Elvira, but as with other novels like this, some readers may feel discomfort at what can seem like appropriation of a neuro-atypical voice.