05-01-2006, 12:51 AM
Kamran Nazeer, son of itinerant Pakistani parents, did not speak until he was 4. When his family lived in New York during the early 1980s, he attended one of the few schools designed with a special program for autistic children. An organization then working with this condition estimated that "autism was going undiagnosed in 75 percent of cases," Nazeer writes in his book "Send In the Idiots: Stories from the Other Side of Autism," noting "the first significant pieces of research were just beginning." Despite these circumstances and moves to Jiddah, Islamabad and Glasgow, Nazeer completed university, a law degree and a doctorate in philosophy. Neither practicing law nor teaching appealed to him, but he was recruited into Her Majesty's Service, and works as a policy adviser in Whitehall.
He also publishes in British newspapers and magazines, and now adds this book, titled after a line one of his New York schoolmates, Craig, used to repeat often in class. Craig is a successful Democratic speechwriter here, long past his echolalia, "the constant, disconnected use of a particular word or phrase ... a trait common among autistic people." In fact, when Nazeer decided to visit America and write about four former classmates, Craig would turn out to have law and philosophy degrees, too.
Clearly, while Nazeer's autistic acquaintances aren't idiots, the label's loaded connotations appeal to him. He uses the word fondly as well as ironically in prose that is clean, witty and perceptive; in various chapters, which he calls stories (although they are nonfiction, with names and some details changed to protect identities), he visits André, a puppeteer and researcher who develops artificial vision for computers and robots; Randall, a bicycle courier; and the parents of Elizabeth, a talented pianist who committed suicide in 2002. In an interview included with the book's publicity materials, Nazeer admits how "unrepresentative" this small group is, coming from wealthy backgrounds where each person was well cared for, well educated and close to the top of the autism spectrum. But no one had written about the journey of autistic children into adulthood this way before -- combining "storytelling craft and ... analytical rigor." His profiles describe individuals who are neither savants nor unreachable. They are not disabled; they can learn and form close relationships.
"What I've also realised from writing this book is just how crucial professionals have been in the lives of the Idiots," Nazeer remarks. In New York again after the four research trips, he meets a teacher and the former director of his school, which closed after losing funding. Roughly the final third of the book comprises his once again catching up, but now on new footing, with two women who helped Nazeer and his peers, the Idiots, find their way.
The book is reviewed by Irene Wanner
He also publishes in British newspapers and magazines, and now adds this book, titled after a line one of his New York schoolmates, Craig, used to repeat often in class. Craig is a successful Democratic speechwriter here, long past his echolalia, "the constant, disconnected use of a particular word or phrase ... a trait common among autistic people." In fact, when Nazeer decided to visit America and write about four former classmates, Craig would turn out to have law and philosophy degrees, too.
Clearly, while Nazeer's autistic acquaintances aren't idiots, the label's loaded connotations appeal to him. He uses the word fondly as well as ironically in prose that is clean, witty and perceptive; in various chapters, which he calls stories (although they are nonfiction, with names and some details changed to protect identities), he visits André, a puppeteer and researcher who develops artificial vision for computers and robots; Randall, a bicycle courier; and the parents of Elizabeth, a talented pianist who committed suicide in 2002. In an interview included with the book's publicity materials, Nazeer admits how "unrepresentative" this small group is, coming from wealthy backgrounds where each person was well cared for, well educated and close to the top of the autism spectrum. But no one had written about the journey of autistic children into adulthood this way before -- combining "storytelling craft and ... analytical rigor." His profiles describe individuals who are neither savants nor unreachable. They are not disabled; they can learn and form close relationships.
"What I've also realised from writing this book is just how crucial professionals have been in the lives of the Idiots," Nazeer remarks. In New York again after the four research trips, he meets a teacher and the former director of his school, which closed after losing funding. Roughly the final third of the book comprises his once again catching up, but now on new footing, with two women who helped Nazeer and his peers, the Idiots, find their way.
The book is reviewed by Irene Wanner