With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child, Volume 8

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2468998.html

Sadly the last of the series of manga about bringing up an autistic son in today's Japan, curtailed by the untimely death of the writer Keiko Tobe in 2010. At this stage, the setting of wrestling with Hikaru's special education needs was sometimes becoming background scenery for other dramas to play out in the foreground - a younger work colleague's crush on Hikaru's father, for instance, or an abusive relationship between two of his classmates. But the tricky family dynamics are still there, particularly between Hikaru's mother and her mother-in-law, cooped up in a rather small house together and trying to find a modus vivendi. And the book ends, or would have ended, on a note of reconciliation between the generations which is rather sweet.

We also get as a bonus two of Keiko Tobe's earlier stories for the monthly For Mrs. magazine where With the Light was published, one fairly slight piece about a teacher and a difficult class, the other more accomplished about an elderly man who befriends a young neighbouring child. It's good to have all of the stories together, though it's a shame that there won't be any more. ( )

Loved loved loved this series, and I wish all the best to Hikaru and his family (though his bitchy grandmother is welcome to take a hike). I wish the author had been able to actually finish (she died instead), but it allows me to believe that Hikaru had a long, healthy, happy life. ( )