• About this Book
• About the Author
• Read an Excerpt
• Teacher's Guide

Written by John Elder Robison

• Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
 
• Publisher: Broadway
• On Sale: September 9, 2008
• Price: $14.95
• ISBN: 978-0-307-39618-1 (0-307-39618-5)

about this book

Selected for Common Reading at Defiance College, Moncalm Community College, and SUNY Potsdam, and used in high schools and college courses throughout the country

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.

“John Robison's book is an immensely affecting account of a life lived according to his gifts rather than his limitations. His story provides ample evidence for my belief that individuals on the autistic spectrum are just as capable of rich and productive lives as anyone else.”
—Daniel Tammet, author of Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant


Special Note:

Author John Elder Robison has developed a graduate course on his book Look Me in the Eye and the Asperger mind. This one-day credit course will help educators understand Asperger’s, and integrate the ideas expressed in Look Me in the Eye into middle and high school curriculums. "The Asperger Mind" is offered through Elms College in Chicopee, MA and will be available online for fall 2010. For more information, go to http://www.elms.edu/News_and_Events/Autism_Event.xml