In a brief introduction to his new novel Census, author Jesse Ball lays bare the loving relationship he had with his brother, who died when Ball was in his 20s. Abram Ball lived with Down syndrome, and Jesse Ball grew up expecting to care for him into adulthood.
In Census, Ball expresses “a sad and powerful longing for a future that did not come”—meaning a future spent caring for his brother—and outlines his intention to write a book about what their relationship might have been like. “People with Down syndrome are not really understood,” Ball explains. “It is not like what you would expect, and it is not like it is ordinarily portrayed and explained. It is something different.” That’s where you get the first taste of Ball’s elusive manner of writing. It’s both compelling and so ambiguous it makes almost no statement at all.