Review: Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison

I recently finished reading Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison. About a month ago, I attended a talk by Robison here in Ottawa where he was promoting a new book and speaking about his life with Asperger's. At the time, I couldn't quite afford his newest book, so I opted for this one.

Look Me In The Eye is a memoir about Robison's life up until a few years ago. It starts off in the early 60's with his childhood and inability to make friends due to social awkwardness caused, in part, by his then undiagnosed Asperger's. One trait he writes about, that I sometimes struggle with, is the inability to make eye contact with people. He eventually did make some friends though.

Later, low grades and serious issues with his parents would lead Robison to drop out of high school. One of his passions had been mechanics and repairing electrical equipment. This got him involved with the music scene as a mechanic and roadie for a local band. He began associating with the likes of Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd before being asked to go on tour with April Wine. After that, he built smoking and flaming guitars for KISS. When music was no longer lucrative, Robison joined a toy company and helped design some of the first electronic games.

Eventually, he married his high school girlfriend, had a son, got married again, and started working in the auto industry, where he now manages a company.

All this is inter-mixed with thoughts on Asperger's, the Autism spectrum, and disabilities in general. Robison was diagnosed with Asperger's in his forties by a friend who was also a therapist and felt he was a textbook case of the syndrome.

Since being diagnosed with Asperger's, he has written several books and has also become an advocate for people with disabilities. One thing I found interesting in this book was how shocked he was by the positive feedback from people with various disabilities, especially autism and Asperger's, as well as family members, and how the book helped them to understand themselves or their loved ones a lot better. I know it definitely had that effect on me!

I don't have autism or Asperger's, but I do have some traits that I now realize are typical of those conditions. It's never been something I've been comfortable even thinking about, but this book has finally made me feel comfortable with openly acknowledging and admitting that yeah, I do have some autistic traits. But, more importantly I think, it's also made me go "so what."

Looking forward to reading Robison's next book, Switched On.

Cheers!