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Kamran Nazeer
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Book
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Publisher | Bloomsbury | ||
ISBN | 9780747585657 | ||
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Reviewer
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Jayne
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Synopsis
In 1982, when he was four years old, Kamran Nazeer was enrolled in a small school in New York City alongside a dozen other children diagnosed with autism. Calling themselves the Idiots, these kids received care that was at the cutting edge of developmental psychology. Twenty-three years later, the school no longer exists. Send in the Idiots is the always candid, often surprising and ultimately moving investigation into what happened to those children. Now a policy adviser in Westminster, Kamran decides to visit four of his old classmates to find out the kind of lives that they are living now, how much they've been able to overcome and what remains missing. A speechwriter unable to make eye contact; a messenger who gets upset if anyone touches his bicycle; a depressive suicide victim; and a computer engineer who communicates difficult emotions through the use of hand puppets: these four classmates reveal an astonishing, thought-provoking spectrum of behaviour. Bringing to life the texture of autistic lives and the pressures and limitations that the condition presents, Kamran also relates the ways in which those can be eased over time, and with the right treatment.Using his own experiences to examine such topics as the difficulties of language, conversation as performance and the politics of civility, Send in the Idiots is also a rare and provocative exploration of the way that people all people learn to think and feel. Written with unmatched insight and striking personal testimony, Kamran Nazeer's account is a stunning, invaluable and utterly unique contribution to the literature of what makes us human.
Review
This book was introduced to me by a couple of people who are researching the book to make a 90 minute film about Autistic People. They have spent time with us, a group who meet in Godalming who all have Asperger's Syndrome.
The book is a fascinating read, balancing a desire for scientific proof and understanding of the author's own remarkable story in which the writer tries to explain what happened to them while they were in school. I like the title which comes about, because one of the characters from the story at the school they used to go to, used to say "Send in the Idiots" when the teacher used to read the daily newspaper to them. The group used to think themselves as idiots because they did not go to a normal school and nobody could understand them.
The book is very well put together, and visiting his three friends some 23 years later to see what had happened to all of them. he discovered that one had not made it to his age but, the others had quite good lives, and two had jobs of a very good nature.
I found this book hard to read because of the way these people have been treated at school, and in their chosen careers. It was even hard to see how their teachers treated Kamran when he met with them again towards the end of the book.
Kamran has told the story as he has found it, this should not be the way people are treated - yes let them be taught in a system that can help them get the best out of life. He shows how people because of their ignorance do not understand that many with Autism can lead very informative and productive careers. Some Autistic people are very, very intelligent and can because of the way their minds are wired they see problems from a different perspective.
I found the book very revealing because the way the story has been told is a real eye opener and from the outsiders point of view, it shows the real lack of care for those with Autism in the early 1980's. The book is well written and will be a very good basis for a film to show how Autistic people are very missunderstood.
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