In his own words:

I see numbers as shapes, colors, textures and motions. The number 1, for example, is a brilliant and bright white, like someone shining a flashlight into my eyes. Five is a clap of thunder or the sound of waves crashing against rocks. Thirty-seven is lumpy like porridge, while 89 reminds me of falling snow.

Daniel is the firstborn child in what will become a very large family. His parents had limited education and resources, and his father suffers from a debilitating mental illness, but as parents, they were patient and supportive of the unusual son. Daniel was different from the start, and suffered from frightening seizures as a child. As with any child on the autistic spectrum, his social skills were limited and he craves solitude and a predictable routine, things not easy to find for a boy growing up with a large family in small, crowded homes in London.

And yet, despite all his problems, Daniel works hard to learn the social skills that don’t come naturally to him, and he makes friends. After finishing secondary school, he joins a volunteer service program and spends a year teaching English in Lithuania, an experience that helps him develop into a competent and independent young man, helps him come to terms with his sexuality and discover his gift for learning other languages.

Back in the UK, his extraordinary mental abilities bring him fame as the subject of a documentary called “Brainman” and as he performs such feats as memorizing over over 22,000 digits of Pi, and learning the Icelandic language in less than a week. But although these accomplishments are astounding feats, they are not really as significant or impressive as his personal growth. He finds love with a gentle and understanding young man named Neil, and they form a loving and supportive home together, while also becoming closer to his parents, brothers and sisters.

Daniel tells his story in the rather flat, unemotional prose, and uses many examples and explanations of his fascination with mathematics and linguistics. This was interesting, but the most moving parts of the book were his loving descriptions of his relationship with Neil, and the loss of their cat, Jay.

Charlotte Moore is the mother of three sons, George, Sam and Jake. George and Sam both seem bright and healthy as babies, but eventually their behavior raises questions and first George, and then Sam are diagnosed as autistic. Jake, born after his older brothers’ diagnosis, is neurotypical, not affected by autism.

This book is both more personal and less so than most of the personal narratives on this topic. It’s definitely a mother’s story, with far more detail on daily life for Moore’s family. She lives alone with the boys on her family farm in the English countryside, in the old house she grew up in, an idyllic life greatly disrupted by her demanding sons. Disrupted, but also enhanced by her sons, who are much-loved and appreciated for their own special qualities. Moore makes it clear that, unlike many parents of autistic children, she does not believe that there’s a normal child somehow locked inside the autism. George and Sam, she tells us, are autistic through and through. It’s who they are, and she accepts them as they are.

Moore describes the details of her family’s domestic life, including what they wear, what they eat, what they like, dislike and fear, and how they play. As a former Children’s Librarian and ESL teacher, one of the things I found most interesting was her detailed observations of their speech patterns at various stages, and their relationship to different books and videos. You seldom get this level of specific detail, and I admire her close attention and interpretation, which reminded me of Cushla and Her Books by Dorothy Butler. It reminded me of how important books can be in the life of a child, and how specific books may appeal to a particular child for any number of personal, idiosyncratic reasons.

Moore also describes the different problems her boys pose, and her efforts to find treatments and educational options for them. She’s pragmatic and honest about her efforts — she tries many options, some of which work for one boy or the other, and some of which don’t. And, as she notes several times, you never really know what actually works, because you don’t know what would have happened if you had made other choices. She doesn’t present herself as perfect, and indeed it’s easy to criticize some of her choices. For example, I understand the problems she has getting her sons to eat a healthy, balanced diet, but I was appalled and disgusted at the amount of junk food and candy she makes available.

But then again — I never had to face the problems she deals with, something I had to think about on nearly every page. I found this book more interesting than most of the others I have read, thanks to the large amount of domestic detail, and her ability to maintain a positive attitude and sense of humor in very difficult circumstances.

Links :

• An Extreme Aloneness — A negative review by Carolyn See, Washington Post, December 8, 2006
• Curious incidents — “Harriet Stewart is moved by Charlotte Moore’s George and Sam and Paul Collins’s Adventures in Autism: both parental accounts of living with autistic children” (Guardian article)
• Stuck in the Land of Thomas the Tank Engine — “Charlotte Moore on the ups and downs of life with her two – now teenage – autistic sons” (Guardian article)

Roy Richard Grinker and his wife Joyce were as devastated as any couple would be when their first child, Isabel, was diagnosed as autistic at the age of two, but they did bring some educational assets to the situation. He’s an anthropologist whose father and grandfather were psychiatrists, and his wife is a psychiatrist.

This book is a combination of things : a history of the diagnosis and treatment of autism, a discussion on current issues in the field, a description of how autism is viewed and treated in several other countries including South Africa and Korea. But most of all, it’s a loving father’s story of his daughter, and how he and his family have learned to appreciate Isabel’s special gifts while helping her overcome her problems.

“I try not to think about what other teenage girls are like — the ones I see outside our local middle school, gossiping and talking about boys — and focus only on Isabel. If I compare her to the rest of the world, she seems so impaired. But if I compare her with herself, and consider all the progress she’s made, more than any doctor ever predicted, I’m suddenly filled with respect for her.”

In some ways, I found the book a bit of a hodgepodge, as it jumps around between the personal, historical and anthropological elements. But I found it absorbing, anyway, especially the interviews with mothers of autistic children in other countries. There were some touching and inspiring stories, and it made me want to read more about how autism and other neurological and psychological conditions are viewed in different cultures.

• Unstrange Minds — The author’s official site for the book, which includes some interesting additional material including a clip of Bruno Bettelheim on the Dick Cavett program, and some recommended links