A narrative history of autism: the story of parents fighting for their children ’s civil rights; of doctors struggling to define autism; of ingenuity, self-advocacy, and profound social change.
...the book doesn't stay focused in struggle narratives or it would risk portraying autism as uniformly tragic and requiring pity. Instead it shares the often debilitating aspects of autism yet shows how those with autism can and do flourish with the right supports and environments, and how their lives, and the lives of their families, are filled with joys and triumphs and fun and irreverence too.
The authors come from the world of television news and their book is crafted like a tightly edited news special: The prose is vivid, the tempo rapid and the perspective intimate, as if each character has been filmed with a hand-held camera.
I wept and laughed and raged while reading In a Different Key, all the while thinking, Yes! This is my experience, including the raw and dirty parts, but also the wonder and joy. It’s the bones of a screenplay about what it’s like to be human in this particular, vulnerable way.
