[In Hey, Dummy] Neil is at first both amused and repelled by the retarded boy who has moved into the neighborhood and is attending his school, but he soon begins to feel sympathy for Alan (the "Dummy" of the title) and to defend him when others tease him. And Alan responds, following Neil affectionately. Soon rejected by his other friends, worried by Alan's situation (autistic sister, withdrawn mother, father in an institution, home a shambles) and bitterly conscious of the harshness and hostility of his own parents, Neil is driven to run off with Alan. When they are caught, tension has pushed Neil to the breaking-point, and his sympathy for Alan results in his identifying with Alan. There has been, throughout the book, a train-of-consciousness reaction from the retarded Alan, and the startling ending has the same disjointed and monosyllabic speech (always italicized) only this time it is...