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Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's | 
 enlarge | Author: John Elder Robison
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $10.38
You Save: $15.57 (60%)
New (42) Used (18) Collectible (7) from $9.08
Avg. Customer Rating:  129 reviews
Sales Rank: 694
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0307395987
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.1968588320092
EAN: 9780307395986
ASIN: 0307395987
Publication Date: September 25, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: All orders receive tracking information upon shipment (except expedited PO boxes). May not contain certain online supplements such as infotrac and web access codes. Used items likely contain highlighting and/or writing. Expedited shipping available.
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Product Description
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 124 more reviews...
 Worth your money May 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
While reading Augustin Burroughs description of his brother's asperger's it hit me like a brick. When he was describing John Elder my loved one fell into every category he mentioned. John Elder has done an amazing job giving us a glimpse into his life. I found every emotion in this book. I laughed, I cried, and I came out knowing and feeling I understood alot more about Asperger's. This book flows very well and even though big is a very fast read.
I think John Elder definately has a gift for writing too! I would recommend this book to anyone. I will also add him to my list of authors to purchase everytime they have a new book come out. There are currently only 2 authors on that list and I am an avid reader.
Highly Recommend This Book May 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has children or grandchildren or other family members or friends who have children with autistic issues; especially Asperger issues.
wonderful --- must read May 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am recently married to a wonderful man with Asperger's as well as step mom to a pre teen boy with asperger's. This book gave me a whole new insight to them both... There were several chapters where I either thought to myself that he was writing about my husband or my son...
 not what I had hoped it would be April 28, 2008
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was disappointed in this book. Reading through the other reviews I was astonished at how many people thought it was "amazing" and "interesting". I thought it was full of boring anecdotes and I was appalled at how proud he was of his mean pranks. If the meanness is a result of the Asperger's syndrome it was not well explained, so I had a hard time accepting that the meanness was out of his control. It did appear to be poorly edited, with lots of inconsistencies. There were several places, usually at the end of chapters, where he leaves us hanging with such teasers as, "Little did I know it would get much worse." (Sorry, paraphrasing here - I don't have the book in front of me). Turn the page to the next chapter and we don't really find out what was "much worse" (again, paraphrasing). This was very frustrating and made the book difficult to follow. I've read many books along this line and this was just poorly written, by what appears to be a mean, arrogant man. Maybe he's not really like that, but that's what comes across. I hardly ever dislike a book, but it was all I could do to finish this one
 Interesting, but shallow and guarded April 19, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is less a book about what it's like to live with Asperger's, than it is a collection of anecdotes from someone who happens to have the syndrome. If the purpose of the book is to convince that the author experiences emotions similarly to 'normal' people but expresses them differently, it fails in that regard. There was, to me, the feeling that the author is emotionally 'robotic' in a way that 'normal' people are not. The book means to humanize him (and people like him) beyond what would be the first impressions of someone who didn't know better, but only the most judgemental observer would assume less humanity than is on display in these pages. If anything, the book confirms the impression of a certain roboticness which is at odds with a certain humanity.
Maybe an autobiographical book by an author who lacks ability to be introspective should be expected to be shallow on some level. But it would have been interesting to at least go into how his Asperger's affected his first marriage, or how it forced him to leave his corporate job, or how it affects his personal relationships with his wife and son. There is almost no direct information on those topics in the book. The author chose not to write about certain more-personal topics which would have provided the most meaningful and interesting cases in point of living with Aspergers. As such, I felt slightly cheated by the book.
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