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Author: Leonore Fleischer
Charles Babitt makes risky and not quite legal deals with Lamborghini's.
When Charlie has troubles with his business he gets the message that his rich father has died and he drives to the funeral. There he meets his father's lawyer, who has the will and reads it to Charlie. He is the only heir of the car and of his father's rose bushes. All the money, his father had is going to an unnamed beneficiary. The lawyer, Dr. Mooney, doesn't tell Charlie the name of the unnamed beneficiary because he isn't allowed to. But Charlie wants to find that person and so he looks for him/her. He thinks about his father and considers where he could search for his money and the unnamed beneficiary. After a while he has an idea : the WALLBROOK HOME FOR THE DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED. So he drives to this establishment. There he finds a man, who is the unnamed beneficiary, his name is Raymond Babitt. Raymond is his older brother. He is in this institution because he is an autistic. People who are autistic aren't able to feel, to lie or to distinguish between important things and facts besides you can't communicate with them.
Dr. Bruner isn't allowed to give Charlie half of the money, which Raymond has inherited. Therefore Charlie kidnaps Raymond to force Dr. Bruner to let him have the money.
First they drive to their father's grave and then to a hotel. The first night is very difficult, because the bed in the hotel room isn't under the window. Raymond hates changes. In the morning breakfast isn't much easier, because Ray wants to eat his pancakes with toothpicks, in a restaurant. Then, after breakfast they have to fly to L.A. but Ray refuses to go on board. He knows all the airlines, which had a crash and so he doesn't want to fly with such an airline. So they have to go by car.
At eleven o'clock a.m. Ray always watches a program on TV. As there are only a few minutes to eleven, they are in the middle of the country and there isn't a farm or a bar near by. Shortly before Ray gets crazy they find a farm, where he can watch the program.
In the evening they are in a Motel and there Raymond says something that astonishes Charlie. He says "funny rain man". Charlie thinks, that can't be real, because when he was a child he had an imaginary friend whose name was Rain Man. Then they find out why and when Ray had to leave home. It was shortly after their mother's death, because he had put Charlie into a bath tube with too hot water.
On the next day Charlie gets to know that the deal with his Lamborghini's didn't work and he has to pay a lot of money to some people.
Then they go to a restaurant to eat something. There is a music machine where each song has a number. Ray notices the numbers of the songs and Charlie thinks that this is his chance. They drive to Las Vegas and on their way Charlie explains a card - game to Raymond. There Charlie wants to play this game in a casino, to win money to pay back his debts. In the evening they begin to gamble. At the beginning everything is perfect, they win a lot of money and nobody notices that Ray is counting the cards. But after a while the watchdogs begin to doubt them. Soon they stop gambling and go back to the hotel with a big winning.
There Ray meets a prostitute, her name is Iris, and they set out a date for 10 o'clock p.m. Before that date Susanna , Charlie's girlfriend, comes back to them and Charlie shows Ray how to dance. When they come into the bar, there is no Iris and Charlie has to go to the manager of the hotel. There he hear that they know that Ray has counted the cards, but they don't take his money, they only tell him that he has to leave Las Vegas. In the meantime Susanna and Ray go back to their room and in the elevator, they dance together and then Ray kisses Susanna.
After they all get back to L.A. Charlie meets Dr. Bruner. Dr. Bruner tells Charlie that their lawyers talk to each other and then they will decide where Ray should go.
On the next day Charlie and Raymond go to the psychiatrist Dr. Marston and to Dr. Bruner. There Charlie wants to prove that Ray has learned much more in six days with Charlie than in twenty years with Dr. Bruner in the establishment. It is evident but all the same Raymond goes back to Wallbrook because there they know his needs.
In these six days not only Raymond has learned a lot, but also Charlie has learned something, for example that money isn't the most important thing.
My opinion of the book:
In the beginning it was not quite easy for me to read this book, but after a while it was very easy.
In my opinion this book is a very good book, because the reader can see that also people who are fixed on money can learn, that money isn't the main thing in life.
Main persons:
Charles Babitt: He is a young businessman, who makes very risky deals. He hasn't a very good relationship to his father and his mother died when he was two years old. At the beginning of the book he thinks money is the main thing in life, but then he realises that it isn't like that.
Raymond Babitt: He is the older brother of Charles. He had to leave home when he was twenty years old, so Charlie never knows him really, because he is 18 years older than Charles. He is an autistic person and so he lives in a home for developmentally disabled. He inherits all the money from their father.
Dr. Bruner: He is the psychiatrist of Raymond and he was a good friend of Ray's father. When Charles comes to him and wants to have the money of his brother, he doesn't relent and doesn't give in. When Charlie kidnaps Raymond he stays cool, but then, after a week, he tries to get back Ray and so he also
flies to L.A. , where they are.
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