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Title: The Outer Mongolian by David R. Slavitt ISBN: 0-385-00425-7 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 1973 Format: Unknown Binding

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: And a little child shall lead them....
Comment: There has never been a hero like Waldo and there probably will never be one again....

This book was published in 1973 and I read it in a paperback edition some ten years later. It was a book that I was to read again and again until the paperback novel finally fell to pieces.

This is an unusual read, with an even more unusual storyline. Its hero is a young boy called Waldo who is born with Down's syndrome or Mongolism as it was known then. His parents, a white middle aged, middle class family guiltily consign him to n expensive "special" home in which he spends his first few years of life. Accidentally given a continual overdose of highly potent vitamins, combined with his missing chromosome, Waldo emerges from his chrysalis as a genius but a secret genius who does not trust the world that has confined him to the Shady Glade Institute.

With the constant chatter of TV in the background, Waldo learns about the world through the highly politicised news of the day. Waldo is a child growing up in the 1960s and is a living witness to a world filled with violence, war and extreme change in which he is going to play a very BIG part.

Cunning, sly and incredibly intelligent, Waldo fools all the hospital staff and his family into thinking he is an above average Mongol but nothing too spectacular that will get him overly noticed. Befriending a burnt out CIA agent who has been sent to Shady Glade to recuperate after a breakdown, Waldo eventually reveals himself to the man and acquires his first friend and convert to his cause. His next friend however is not so well chosen, a young girl, who almost betrays his secret and only his sheer intelligence gets him through the tests and questions that follow and it is this experience that makes Waldo realise he has to leave Shady Glade or eventually he will expose. What better place to go than his guilt ridden parents house in the suburbs?

And so Waldo worms his way into their affection and finally their house. And it is here he starts his empire building. "Borrowing" some money from his parent's bank account he starts to make money on the stock market and eventually moves into politics helped by the now released and slightly less burnt out CIA agent who comes to revere the boy's brains and cunning and together they set out to change the very fabric of post Watergate politics.

Waldo's first ally in his bid for political domination is the family Black Maid who he pays to run errands from. She is the first person to have a semblance of understanding about Waldo's abilities and grows to respect him though their friendship is based on his need and her greed. When his parents finally find out about Waldo's corporations and his multi million dollars they are drawn into his finally tuned web, becoming his staunchest supporters.

The story climaxes with Waldo's mother's death and a promise he makes to her. He will get America out of Vietnam and it is to this end that book makes its steady journey.

Never boring, often tongue in cheek but done so subtly you are barely aware of it, this is a wonderful book that punches you constantly in the chest with its dry wit, cutting dark humour and its portrayal of a USA in transition.