Look Me in the Eye
My Life with Asperger's
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4.4 • 22 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
'... as heartfelt a memoir as one could find, utterly unspoiled, uninfluenced, and original.' - Augusten Burroughs
A New York Times and Australian bestseller, Look Me In The Eye tells of a child's heartbreaking desperation to connect with others, and his struggle to pass as 'normal' -- a struggle that would continue into adulthood.
By the time he was a teenager, John Elder Robison's odd habits -- such as a tendency to obsessively dismantle radios and dig five-foot holes (and stick his little brother in them) -- had earned him the label 'social deviant'. No guidance came from his mother, who conversed with light fixtures, or his father, who spent the evenings drinking. Small wonder Robison gravitated to machines, which could, at least, be counted on. It was not until he was forty that an insightful therapist told Robison he had the form of autism called Asperger's syndrome, transforming the way Robison saw himself -- and the world.
Look Me In The Eye is Robison's moving and blackly funny story of growing up with Asperger's syndrome at a time when the diagnosis didn't even exist. A born storyteller, Robison takes us inside the head of a boy whom teachers and other adults regarded as defective and who still has a peculiar aversion to using people's given names (he calls his wife Unit Two). He also provides a fascinating angle on the younger brother he left at the mercy of their nutty parents -- the boy who would grow up to write Running with Scissors. Above all, you'll marvel at the way Robison overcame the restrictions of Asperger's to gain the connection he always craved: as a husband and father.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Robison's thoughtful and thoroughly memorable account of living with Asperger's syndrome is assured of media attention (and sales) due in part to his brother Augusten Burroughs's brief but fascinating description of Robison in Running with Scissors. But Robison's story is much more fully detailed in this moving memoir, beginning with his painful childhood, his abusive alcoholic father and his mentally disturbed mother. Robison describes how from nursery school on he could not communicate effectively with others, something his brain "is not wired to do," since kids with Asperger's don't recognize "common social cues" and "body language or facial expressions." Failing in junior high, Robison was encouraged by some audiovisual teachers to fix their broken equipment, and he discovered a more comfortable world of machines and circuits, "of muted colors, soft light, and mechanical perfection." This led to jobs (and many hilarious events) in worlds where strange behavior is seen as normal: developing intricate rocket-shooting guitars for the rock band Kiss and computerized toys for the Milton Bradley company. Finally, at age 40, while Robison was running a successful business repairing high-end cars, a therapist correctly diagnosed him as having Asperger's. In the end, Robison succeeds in his goal of "helping those who are struggling to grow up or live with Asperger's" to see how it "is not a disease" but "a way of being" that needs no cure except understanding and encouragement from others.
