What is it like to know you are “slow,” that you will forever be cut off from taking advantage of what society offers its productive—and even not so productive—adults? And what is it like to be the parent of such a person? These are the experiences that Karen Bender reveals in her exquisitely perceived domestic drama, Like Normal People (Mariner Books, $13.50). We come to know what it is like to be Lena Rose—who is functional enough to make it through a special education program that will coax her toward graduation from high school, but does not always remember to brush her teeth. And we know what it is like to be the mother of such child.