The character JohnJohn is introduced by his actions. It would have been possible to simply explain that JohnJohn was autistic, but that would have failed to really illuminate the autistic experience. Louis-Ann Yamanaka uses the intensely focused paragraphs, little snapshots of JohnJohn's life, to pull us through the experience of being him. By opening with a surreal experience of white blossoms trickling down in the trade winds, she gives us what it's like to be autistic from her perspective. It's as if at that particular moment, nothing in the world exists outside of the falling flowers, as it is safely set apart from any analysis of the situation by the following ellipses. The interpolation of JohnJohn beautiful experiences with excerpts of inter-office communications and screaming in the grocery store builds in the reader compassion and anxiety at the same time, giving insight into what it’s like to be JohnJohn, and at the same time what it’s like to be the author tethered to such a dynamic personality.
Setting is almost a third character in the work. Without the crowded grocery store, the checkout line, JohnJohn’s tantrum would have been a less jarring experience for the reader. It is not coincidence that most of JohnJohn’s moments of beauty are recognized when the main character and he are alone, and the anxiety producing moments involve other people. It says a lot about how the she feels about JohnJohn and his existence. To her, he is clearly hers and perfectly so. She demonizes the schools and psychologists for not understanding his intrinsic beauty. By the time we are through traveling to the magical JohnJohn alternate DIMENSIONs and facing the brutality of the intrusion of reality into his idyllic world, we find ourselves understanding and feeling the love that the main character feels, and perhaps having a little more empathy for the autistic experience.
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