Written by Charlotte Matthews, The Collapsible Mannequin is a delightfully quirky novel. The chapters alternate between Clarence, a twelve-year-old child, and his mother, Sarah. They live over the Gateway Rent-to-Own Store in Rolla, Missouri. Clarence desperately wants to know the identity and location of his father. Sarah recoils the few times Clarence approaches the topic. Believing she needs to protect Clarence from the truth, Sarah bears the burden of keeping two secrets.

The book reads much like a series of prose poems. Each chapter is not more than a page or two, some only a couple of paragraphs. The two main characters, mother and son, take turns making observations. Some are philosophical, some scientific, some funny and some about mundane aspects of life. What makes their observations poetic is the succinctness of each entry and the beauty of both the language and images on the pages. Clarence’s observations are a compendium of little-known facts and unusual ways of looking at the world. Sarah, who once was a teacher, tends more toward the philosophical.

Early on, Clarence tells the reader that he has Asperger syndrome. However, this is not a book about the trials and tribulations of having Asperger syndrome. Yes, Clarence has difficulties figuring out how to fit in, but he doesn’t seem to be overly distraught about having to make that effort. Sarah equips him with a way of viewing himself. She tells her son to steer clear of people who want to fix him. Instead, he should be a person who shows others that he brings a lesson to all, so that they will see him as a “re-grouping of tiny fragments of genius.”

The tone of this book is gentle. Many of the secondary characters are kind: Kevin the bus driver, Larry the owner of the Rent-to-Own store and Pete, Clarence’s sixty-year-old pen pal. Although the pages are chockful of facts and opinions, the book is not didactic and does not preach. It is more as if on each page, the author is murmuring, “Dear Reader, consider this.”

This is a character driven book. Insofar as plot, not a lot happens. Yet the narrative tension is such that Matthews kept my interest on every page. The reason is that she is skilled at creating and maintaining a strong point of view with each of the two main characters. By her doing so, I found myself deeply caring about how Clarence and Sarah would fare.

In a sense, the setting for this novel is the interior lives of Clarence and Sarah. Yes, the story takes place in a somewhat grim and often cold Missouri town, but we readers spend our time exploring a landscape of thoughts and feelings. That journey propels the story forward.

The writing is beautiful and a pleasure to read. Matthews knows how to create a lovely phrase and expand that phrase into a dazzling concept. For example, Clarence and his mother discuss the idea of the half-life of magnificence. The half-life of magnificence is when your a companion and you view or experience something absolutely wonderful, so wonderful that saying a word would destroy the moment, would take its power away, would cut its magic in half.

Ultimately, Sarah’s secrets are revealed to Clarence, not in any way you might imagine but also in a way that makes perfect sense and is consummately satisfying.