Product Description

We looked like a cup of human fruit cocktail dumped onto the top of the house, each piece different but all out of the same can.

So begins a book unlike any other, half comics and half text, about a family that lives with autism -- and the strange life that is ordinary to them.

The oldest son, David, recites Superman episodes as he walks around the living room. A late-night family poker game spirals into a fog-driven duel. A thug from an old black-and-white rerun crawls out of the television. A housekeeper transforms into an avenging angel. A broken plate signals a terrible change in the family that none of them can prevent...until it's too late.

This groundbreaking work was excerpted in The New York Times for its ability to honestly, eloquently, and respectfully set forth what life is like with autism in the family. What sets The Ride Together apart is its combination of imagination and realism -- its vision of a family's inner world -- with David at the center.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135570 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Combining their talents, this brother-sister team has created a compassionate account of life with their autistic brother, David, interspersing prose chapters with comics chapters to offer an unusual memoir. Judy was once an editor at Henry Holt, while Paul draws cartoons for the New Yorker. Their collective work in this book spans five decades, beginning with David's birth in 1948 and ending in the present (he now lives in a community for people with autism). Roughly chronological, Paul's comics and Judy's prose are carefully intertwined so that the writing and the art amplify each other. Judy describes her family as "a cup of human fruit cocktail dumped onto the top of the house, each piece different but all out of the same can." She recalls a road trip she and David took together: "David himself was a part of the country I needed to see." The visual concepts in Paul's comics reflect his close association with Art Spiegelman, as Maus-like devices and images erupt inside imaginative pages. Together, brother and sister have succeeded in making an innovative, intimate and poetic probe into the inner world of the autistic mind that many readers will find quite moving. Agent, Gail Hochman.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this remarkable book, the Karasiks present a sibling's viewpoint of growing up with autism. Alternating between Judy's memoir and Paul's comics, they chronicle the life of their brother, David, from the 1950s to today. The authors recount the heartbreaks and joys of growing up with an autistic sibling and offer insights into the treatment of the condition at a time, when the medical and educational professions knew little about it and blamed parents (namely, "refrigerator moms"). Events such as David's recitations of whole TV shows and his slapping his head as a response to uncomfortable situations take on new meaning through the unique format. Judy formerly worked as a book editor, and Paul is a professional cartoonist. Their book fills an important gap in the literature, complementing the parental view found in most autism narratives. This work is strongly recommended for all public libraries and academic libraries with collections on autism and disability studies, as well as for book groups that wish to include a graphic novel. Given the focus on children with special needs, secondary school libraries should also consider it. [For an interview with the authors, see "Sibling Revelry," p. 89.-Ed.]-Corey Seeman, Univ. of Toledo Libs., O.
--Corey Seeman, Univ. of Toledo Libs., OH
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The Karasiks' eldest brother, David, is autistic, but their father's resources as a successful attorney and both parents' determination that they and their other children would always respect and love David have allowed him a civilized life. In this deeply affecting joint memoir, Judy's prose and Paul's comics present sketches of family life with David ever in mind. A professional book editor, Judy asserts her bona fides by writing with a spare elegance that makes one hope to see a novel from her some day. Her disclosure, near the end of the book, of the crisis that ended David's longtime live-in placement as an adult is all the more devastating for the economy with which she presents it; one feels her and her other sibs' dismay in the pit of the stomach. Paul's similarly economical drawing style answers in ebullience and even glee his sister's greater emotional intensity; he lets us see that his brother, although he behaves peculiarly, is fully lovable as well as bewildering and sometimes heartbreaking. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

A book I keep recommending to friends
I can't think of any other book that could have so brilliantly told a real story about autism in the family...in such an imaginative and poignant way. Until you've seen and read this book, it is difficult to comprehend that the searing edge of storytelling could be by means of the duality of child/adult personal recollections -- combined with original graphic-novel illustration. To bring this kind of imagination to this important, elusive topic of our time is a truly miraculous achievement. There is a lot of pain and a lot of joy of family strength, and you really don't feel that marzipan coating that might have gotten in the way.

What a beautiful, amazing book...I sat down to read it and found myself finishing it all in an afternoon, something I rarely do. I'm not an activist, but I must say I have spent time trying to tell friends about this book. I'll probably be giving a number of copies as gifts. Somehow, I hope this book receives a much wider audience so that people might see and understand the power and value of writing (and drawing) about something REAL in a society which seems so consumed with pop topics and lavish, vacant overproduced books that never get read or are rarely worth saving, passing on to others.

A unique persective on living with autism in the family
"The Ride Together" provides a unique illustration of living
with--growing up with--autism. The book gives voice like nothing
else to the personal impact of autism on family members in ways not ordinarily considered. For example, a youngster wincing when his friend casually uses "retard" as an epithet. Or mom patiently explaining why it's fair that one's brother doesn't have to clean his room "because everything else is so hard for him." There are escape mechanisms one must develop in order not to be overwhelmed--one poignant example being the adoption of avoidance strategies in adolescence so the girl you want to date won't actually come to your house. The format of the book combines clear, unsentimental prose and graphic novel form, enhancing its message in the way that poetry lends added meaning to ordinary words and phrases.

A n amazing book!
What a unique and astounding experience this book is. The authors tell the story of their autistic brother in a way that made me shake my head in wonder. Alternating chapters of prose and graphic/illustrated text paint a portrait of such power and poignant insight that neither method alone could ever achieve. For me, it was like when, after instumental music has taken us as far as it can, the vocal chorus kicks in in Beethoven's Ninth. As I read (and re-read) this book, I found that the chapters were almost conducting a dialog with each other, with "prose" chapters challenging the "words-and-pictures" ones, and vice versa, each chapter upping the narrative ante. Because the format alternates as it does, our brains are constantly challenged and engaged, and we get to know David and all the members of the Karasik family in wasy that make it unlikely that we will soon forget them.

A stunning achievement.