Autism from the Inside: Living within the Spectrum
From an autistic teenager trying to solve a murder mystery to a teenager dealing with a younger sister with autism to four (now adults) former classmates of a school in 1982 for children with autism, this installment of WHAT’S OLD, WHAT’S NEW: BOOKS AND FILMS WORTH KNOWING looks closely at life within the spectrum, from inside out.
The books discussed in this article range in publication dates from 2003 to 2008. The majority of books that have come onto the market and deal with the subject of autism seem to have been either personal (biographical or autobiographical) accounts or non-fiction works filled with statistics, graphs, surveys, and research. However, I want to continue this series in 2009 by first looking at two works of highly insightful and entertaining fiction.
In 2003 a remarkable novel made its appearance. The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime by Mark Haddon announced it unique approach with an unusual cover design: no capital letters in the title and a cut out of an upside down black puddle dog. The Boston Globe called it “Gloriously eccentric and wonderfully intelligent,” itself a brilliant evaluation of this first person narrative of Christopher John Francis Boone. The acclaim for the book printed inside the cover and on the first few pages from a wide array of the literary (The New Yorker) and entertainment (Entertainment World) sources as well as the financial world (Financial Times, London and The Economist) all rave about the range of emotion and skillful crafting of this first novel. From all accounts it is proclaimed to be an instant classic and the title is even spoken in the same sentence with The Sound and the Fury, Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, and Flowers for Algernon; all pretty high company for a first novel. I can offer little more than to say the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime is a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of Christopher’s mind and curious behavior as he tries to navigate a very complex changing world that continues to challenge his brilliant, but eccentric mind. And if you like complex mathematics, you are in for a bonus treat. Enough said; enter Christopher’s world at your own risk.
The following year, 2004, Al Capone Does My Shirts appeared. This Newberry Honor Book, is also a first person narrative, but this time the reader enters the strange world of twelve year old Moose Flanagan, who in 1935 has just moved to the Rock (Alcatraz Island) with his family so that his sister, Natalie, can attend the near by Esther P. Marinoff School for special needs kids. Natalie has autism. Life on Alcatraz with such neighbors as Machine Gun Kelly and Al Capone can be difficult enough, but for Moose it’s almost an impossible assignment: to protect Natalie, live up to his parents’ expectations, and stay out of trouble.
Gennifer Choldenko has succeeded in telling an enjoyable tale through the eyes of an adolescent caught in the middle of a challenging and at times bizarre life situation. Moose begins his journal account on Friday, January 4, 1935 by saying,
Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock covered with cement,
topped with bird turd and surrounded by water. Alcatraz sits
smack in the middle of the bay, so close to the city of San
Francisco, I can hear them call the score on a baseball game
on Marina Green. Okay, not that close. But still.
I’m not the only kid who lives here. There’s my sister, Natalie,
except she doesn’t count. And there are twenty-three other kids
who live on the island because their dads work as guards or cooks
or doctors or electricians for the prison like my dad does. Plus there
are a ton of murderers, rapists, hit men, con men, stickup men,
embezzlers, connivers, burglars, kidnappers and maybe even an
innocent man or two, though I doubt it. (p.3)
While not nearly so complex or challenging as the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime, Al Capone Does My Shirts does certainly entertain and provide an introduction to the effects of a sibling with autism upon an entire family. It is an excellent introduction for a sibling to come to see some of the challenges and opportunities of having a brother or sister with autism.
As a bridge between these two excellent works of fiction and two equally engaging works of non-fiction, I would like to introduce you to a CD, “Living In the Spectrum: Volume 1 Autism & Asperger’s” produced by Lecia Macryn. This CD released in 2004 includes researchers, other professionals, parents, and individuals living within the broad autism spectrum sharing their knowledge, insights, stories, talents, experience, and hopes for the future. It is certainly a breath of fresh air because it adds a new dimension to the total picture where “doom and gloom” is often the first emotion parents feel when they receive the doctor’s words that their child has autism. A highlight for me in the CD is the interview with a twelve-year-old boy with Asperger’s. (see www.mindscapeproductions.com)
Kamran Nazeer, author of Send in the Idiots: Stories from the Other Side of Autism, was once himself, at age four, enrolled in a special school in New York City for children with autism. Some twenty years later he decided that he wanted to contact some of his classmates to see what they had become: Were they still autistic? Did they have a job? How had they accommodated to society? The author encountered the problem that he had no idea how to contact any of the other students from the class. When he happened to mention his idea to his parents, he discovered that the parents of the children had for the most part remained in contact over the years with each other to share stories and solutions with each other. Thus began the effort to interview and write about the lives of some of these former classmates from so long ago.
The phrase, “Send in the idiots” which became the title for this extremely informative examination of the lives of four individuals with autism came for one of the children’s echolalic expressions. When the teacher would real aloud from the newspaper, “Gridlock continues between the White House and the Congress,” Craig would shout out, “Send in the idiots!” Many years later the author finds that Craig, still unable to make eye contact, but a very talented writer, is a major speech writer, “working mostly for the Democratic Party.” He was deeply involved in writing for the 2004 Presidential campaign which as he came to understand it gave “primacy to affinity, not argument.” (p.127) The election was not lost on argument. Craig found himself out of a job.
Each person interviewed, including the two teachers, is unique, and the author provides us with important insights from the inside out. He arrives, in the epilogue, with the conclusion that “Our autism eased, in each case, because of other people, our parents, friends and our teachers, of course.” (p.229) “Idiots don’t need to be sent anywhere. We’re in the right place.” (p. 230)
I close by mentioning another powerful book published in 2008, which offers a view from inside about the spiritual dimension of persons living within the spectrum of autism. I was privileged to review The Soul of Autism by William Stillman, another author in this Autism at home Series. I will leave it to Bill to discuss the importance of this book for everyone living on or beside the spectrum. I will simply say that this sequel to Autism and the God Connection is a must read if society is to understand, appreciate, and come to value and to respect the enormous gifts that many individuals with autism bring to the table.
Next month I will look at a group of books and films that portray the talents of persons with autism who are in the field of music. Stay tuned.
© Laurence A. Becker Ph.D.
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