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Life, Animated: A Story Of Sidekicks, Heroes, And Autism (2014)

by Ron Suskind(Favorite Author)

4.21 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Kingswell

review 1: I don't normally write reviews, but this book deserves one. Suskind tells a deeply personal story about how his autistic son, Owen, used animated movies -- mostly the older, hand drawn Disney films -- as a toolkit to access and develop his ability to understand not only spoken and written language but also emotions, relationships, and his identity. Owen is a guy who was born "neurotypical" but developed the regressive form of autism, such that by the age of three he had lost his language and sensory processing abilities to the point where words, in those early years of autism, sounded like babble, and processing the world and all of its emotional and sensory input was overwhelming. It was so fascinating to read about how Owen sat in the basement, hitting rewind and play... more over and over again, absorbing the babble and the emotional expressions of his favorite characters, the moral undertones of the story lines, and even eventually understanding the meaning of the strings of letters that drifted up the screen in the closing credits. A turning point (very early on in the book; I'm not giving anything away!) happens during the sixth birthday of Walt, Owen's brother, when Owen -- up until this point only uttering very needs based strings of words-- came into the kitchen after observing that Walt seemed upset and said, simply, "Owen doesn't want to grow up, just like Peter Pan." This utterance is what draws the rest of the Suskind family -- the father, mother, and other son, Walt -- into Owen's Disney world, the entire family taking on the voices of characters and singing the theme songs, day in and day out, in order to "get in there with him" and connect. The rest of the book is a coming of age story, as fascinating as it is moving. Seriously it's SO FREAKING GOOD.
review 2: I found this memoir fascinating. Last year I read the article that Suskind wrote about how his autistic son learned to relate to the world through Disney movies, and was thrilled to learn that a book was in the works. This story is moving, and devastating, and elating. It's not so much about the Disney movies themselves, but how they and other types of focal points can be used to connect with people on the spectrum. Several times through out the book I couldn't believe it was true and found myself believing in miracles. I did find the writing style a little confusing at times, not always sure when things were taking place and at what age. And there were several grammatical errors; the book should be proofread once more to catch those. Overall an uplifting story and well worth the read. less

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