In “white noise”, a small intense book by Yolaine Dextremau, the narrative voice is that of Pablo, an autistic boy, or rather his mind, a box full of sounds, voices, smells and memories. There’s also a murder and an investigation involved, but what matters is autism and the respect with which it is told…
When describing autistic people, the expression “isolated from the rest of the world” is often used, almost as if they lived in their own world. It is not so. They live in the same world as everyone. They see, hear, listen, assimilate, record sounds, noises, voices, events. Theirs is not another world, but rather another way of experiencing this world.
Inside the head of an autistic boy
Yolaine DXTreau imagined being in the head of an autistic boy, Pablo, the protagonist of her long story and telling a story through him. Pablo doesn’t speak, he has never spoken. But he records everything that happens in his mind. She processes it. And he tells it. In his way.
A narrative voice that does not speak might seem like an oxymoron and yet the author has shown the reader another way of seeing the world and telling it. Pablo’s mind appears to the reader like an immense box that he has filled with sounds, smells, tastes, memories, gestures, voices, which whirl around inside it almost to form an inextricable tangle. A vortex that seeks his escape route and, not finding it through the sound of words, tries as hard as it can, strenuously clinging to the created order that must never be changed.
The habits and the mother, the certainties
Routine, habits are, for Pablo’s mind, a certainty. The safe handholds to hold on to climb the mountain of life. The other granite pillar of Pablo’s existence is his mother, from whom however he hides what happened to him, what he saw, what he took. A secret and Pablo’s life completely changes direction.
The story told by Dextrema goes on and becomes more and more complex but the point of view does not change, the reader will continue to see through Pablo all the time. He will always be the narrator and everything will always be told through the filter of his mind.
Extreme delicacy
Yolaine Dextrema’s book certainly tells a story. A story that also talks about a murder and the related investigation. But it is a book that above all wants to narrate the existence of autism. A very particular way to remind the reader that the autistic spectrum does not erase the person in which it nests. And she does it with extreme delicacy. The author manages to tell a complex story in a way that is not only simple, but rather delicate. With respect.
White noise (120 pages, 10 euros), translated by Marta Giusti and published by Barta, is a small book divided into short chapters that correspond to Pablo’s thoughts regarding what is happening or reflections on what happened. Also given the layout of the book itself, the writing style chosen is very simple, linear, flowing and almost spoken. Actually thought about it. Because it perfectly reflects the transcription of thoughts and reflections.
A small but truly intense book.
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