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Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism
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Product Description
In Not Even Wrong, Paul Collins melds a memoir of his son's autism with a journey into this realm of permanent outsiders. Examining forgotten geniuses and obscure medical archives, Collins's travels take him from an English churchyard to the Seattle labs of Microsoft, and from a Wisconsin prison cell block to the streets of Vienna. It is a story that reaches from a lonely clearing in the Black Forest into the London palace of King George I, from Defoe and Swift to the discovery of evolution; from the modern dawn of the computer revolution to, in the end, the author's own household.
Not Even Wrong is a haunting journey into the borderlands of neurology - a meditation on what "normal" is, and how human genius comes to us in strange and wondrous forms.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #482754 in Books
- Published on: 2004-04-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 256 pages
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Paul Collins and his wife Jennifer thought their son was perfect. At age one, Morgan learned the alphabet; by two, he was reading, counting, even doing multiplication tables--yet he couldn't respond to his own name and scarcely noticed others in the room. He was, as it turned out, autistic--gifted, intelligent, preternaturally focused, but a stranger in the strange land of human emotions. Fortunately, Paul Collins is eminently suited to act as his guide. The author of Banvard's Folly and the bibliophile's delight Sixpence House, Collins is a very particular kind of historian: an archaelogist of the arcane and a lover of eccentric people and facts. Not Even Wrong turns that love to the best possible use. Part memoir, part history, it traces the lives of suspected autists both famous and obscure, from Peter the Wild Boy, a semi-feral child who became a sensation at the court of George I, to Henry Darger, the recluse and outsider artist. Collins dabbles in neurology and science history, but what emerges is nothing less than a portrait of how Morgan's mind works--as well as a respectful and fascinating account of those with autism and their contributions to our world. --Mary Park
From Booklist
By the age of two, Collins' son, Morgan, could read and multiply but would not respond to his own name. When he was diagnosed with autism, Collins and his wife resisted then slowly let go of their denial and set about getting Morgan the help he would need to develop fully. Collins also set out to explore the world of autistics, social outsiders often as profoundly misunderstood as Peter the Wild Boy, a nearly mute feral child discovered in the Black Forest in 1725. In his search through an English courtyard, the streets of Vienna, a Wisconsin prison, and Microsoft's offices in Seattle, Collins recounts the history of psychological and neurological theories, controversial interpretations and treatments of autism, and the pantheon of geniuses and eccentrics who were diagnosed as or suspected of being autistic. He intersperses his research with accounts of his attempts to connect with his son, to draw him out of the enigmatic world of autism. This is a thoroughly touching and engaging look at autism through the ages, told from the perspective of a loving father. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"No writer better articulates our interest in the confluence of hope, eccentricity, and the timelessness of the bold and strange than Paul Collins. His style is clear and his tone unerring." -Dave Eggers
Customer Reviews
I love this book!
This is my favorite book on autism, period. I adore it.
I am a 30-year-old mom with Asperger Syndrome, my 11-year-old daughter has Autism. As such, I have sought books to keep on hand to give to friends who may be interested in reading about autism. I wish I could afford a whole shelf full of this one!
Paul Collins writing is insightful and deep and it flows well - leading from one chapter into the next, it's a difficult book to put down. This book talks about the author's expolration of the history of autism, and individuals who have lived or are living their own unique lives. At the same time as he's following these leads to find out more about his autism, his own son is diagnosed. It's a beautiful story because of the twists and turns, and because of the lives of people it illuminates so graciously.
I was given an assignment in my graduate Humanities class to recommend one chapter of a book for the whole class to read. I knew immediately it would be this book, but had to think about which chapter. After much deliberation (there are many beautifully written stories that flow together in this volume), I selected Chapter 16. The passage where he sits on the steps of a church to cry after meeting the man with the painted lightbulbs illustrates how this book speaks on what it means to be human, it isn't just a book on autism.
Always eloquent, never condescending - if this is the first book you read on autism you'll start with a deeper understanding. Don't bother reading books that bog you down with those who "suffer from autism" - this book, instead, is about human beings.
Definitely not your everyday parent-of-autistic-child book
You won't find the rage at autism that so many parents have experienced, or the accounts of scientific and medical detective work that other parents have undertaken. What you will find is a collection of stories of people in both relatively ancient (Peter the Wild Boy) and relatively recent (Henry Darger) history who might have been diagnosed somewhere along the autism spectrum, interspersed with his experiences of his son, Morgan.
Another way this book is different from a lot of books written by parents of children with autism, is that Collins uses this collection of stories to look at Morgan's life in its totality, thinking what Morgan might be like at age 40, or age 70, instead of focusing on today's trials and opportunities. Collins thinks a lot further into the future than most parents. On the other hand, using history to think about autism, may not be the best way to go, as quite a bit of research into autism and related disorders is currently under way.
If you've already read some books about autism, you might think "Been there, done that" as you read about important people in the autism community like Simon Baron-Cohen and Temple Grandin. On the other hand, this book is unusually free of the anger, drama and tragedy of many books on this topic. Another thing that is useful about this book is to reflect that autism has most likely been around for a long time.
The book is easy to read, and is extensively documented if you wish to go further along the path Collins is treading.
The best book I've read in a very long time
This book was difficult to put down so, even with a 4 year old to look after, I read it in 4 days. I haven't had that experience with a book in a long time! "Not Even Wrong" is extremely interesting and informative on the subject and history of autism and the author's own personal experience with his autistic son is a tender and heartfelt thread binding it all together. Not only did it give me a much better understanding of autism but it had a profound impact on my understanding and respect for the unique way my own mind works, as well as the minds of those around me. By taking a respectful look at the extreme differences of the autistic mind, it helps a person become more accepting of the subtle differences we all have between us that, if we work with what we've got instead of trying to fit a mold, make us so unique and interesting. Along with his talent for describing history, Paul Collins has put his heart and soul into this book.
