Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s

Why were the rigid social strictures of the early 1960s precisely the wrong kind of environment for Robison to grow up in?

Robison’s life is, by most accounts, a successful one. He excels in a variety of careers and ultimately has a happy marriage. While his Asperger’s creates many challenges, how is it also responsible for his successes?

Robison’s education is largely self-driven. How might his life have been different if he had acclimated to the school environment?

Is Robison’s story an indictment of our standardized school system? Is there a way to nurture difference while also serving the vast majority who do conform?

Robison finds common social etiquette hypocritical. Do these social obligations (feigning sadness over the death of a stranger, for example) serve a useful purpose?

Some of Robison’s “pranks” are cruel and even dangerous. In Chapter 3 he discusses “true empathy,” meaning empathy reserved for people close to you. Why doesn’t he practice true empathy with his mother and brother?

In the final chapter Robison uses the metaphor of a train to describe his life. Why is that an apt metaphor?

Many memoirs are not structured chronologically. Robison’s is. Why does he choose to tell his story from A to Z? Would scrambling the timeline have been a more effective strategy?