Look Me in the Eye

John Elder Robison's memoir of growing up with undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome, high-functioning autism, is a fascinating story of unexpected successes. To add to his troubles, Robison's mother was mentally ill, and his father was an abusive alcoholic. Failing in junior high, Robison was encouraged by his teachers to repair broken audiovisual equipment. His surprising abilities led to inventing rocket-shooting guitars for the band KISS, developing computerized toys, and fixing classic cars. Narrator Mark Deakins's portrayal of Robison is sincere and sensitive. He appropriately underplays the emotional impact of the childhood abuse to match the matter-of-fact tone of the writing and deftly captures Robison's humor, which features quirky names (his wife is "Unit Two" because she's a middle sister) and practical jokes. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

November 26, 2007
Although this memoir deals with some dark topics—including Asperger's syndrome, family alcoholism and mental illness—debut author Robison maintains a keen humor and sense of dramatic irony throughout. The gravelly voiced Robison proves to be a capable storyteller, whether describing the pranks he used to play on his much younger brother (Augusten Burroughs, who reads his foreword) or the relief of finally being diagnosed with Asperger's in middle age after a lifetime of social isolation and relatively odd behaviors. Robison is a vocal and emphatic advocate for Asperger's, which he insists is not a disease but a different—and sometimes better—neurology. Asperger's gave Robison a single-minded ability to focus on his love of electronics, giving him a place in the world as the wizard behind Kiss's smoking and flaming guitars or, later in life, a gift for diagnosing and fixing high-end imported cars. This memoir is highly entertaining and the abridgment is smoothly edited. Simultaneous release with the Crown hardcover (Reviews, July 9).

Fans of Augusten Burroughs (RUNNING WITH SCISSORS) will enjoy this memoir by his older brother. Narrated by the author, the story conveys with equal measures of humor and pathos the difficulty in growing up with Asperger's--particularly as there was no diagnosis for the syndrome during Robison's childhood. His difficulties and his insights into overcoming them make for a compelling story. Robison makes lemonade from what initially seems like lemons, and, from working on rocket-launching guitars for KISS to owning his own business, his story is unique and compelling. His speech idiosyncrasies would likely hinder the story were they not perfectly suited to the nature of his story. In this case, he's the perfect narrator for a truly original memoir. M.T. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine