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My Life with Asperger's
Crown
October 2007
On Sale: September 25, 2007
304 pages
ISBN: 0307395987
EAN: 9780307395986
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir
Ever since he was small, John Robison had longed to connect
with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his
odd habits—an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs, avoid
eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes (and
stick his younger 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
evenings pickling himself in sherry. It was no wonder he
gravitated to machines, which could, at least, be counted on. After fleeing his parents and dropping out of high school,
his savant-like ability to visualize electronic circuits
landed him a gig with KISS, for whom he created their
legendary fire-breathing guitars. Later, he drifted into a
“real” job, as an engineer for a major toy company. But the
higher Robison rose in the company, the more he had to
pretend to be “normal” and do what he simply couldn’t:
communicate. It wasn’t worth the paycheck.
It was not until he was forty that an insightful therapist
told him he had the form of autism called Asperger’s
syndrome. That understanding transformed the way Robison saw
himself—and the world. Look Me in the Eye is the moving, darkly funny story of
growing up with Asperger’s at a time when the diagnosis
simply didn’t exist. A born storyteller, Robison takes you
inside the head of a boy whom teachers and other adults
regarded as “defective,” who could not avail himself of
KISS’s endless supply of groupies, and who still has a
peculiar aversion to using people’s given names (he calls
his wife “Unit Two”). He also provides a fascinating reverse
angle on the younger brother he left at the mercy of their
nutty parents—the boy who would later change his name to
Augusten Burroughs and write the bestselling memoir Running
with Scissors. Ultimately, this is the story of Robison’s journey from his
world into ours, and his new life as a husband, father, and
successful small business owner—repairing his beloved
high-end automobiles. It’s a strange, sly, indelible
account—sometimes alien, yet always deeply human.
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