Mozart and the Whale

One of the things I'm going to do to generate book content is write up some reviews of books I've read recently on autism and related topics. Here's my first.

Mozart and the Whale: An Asperger's Love Story
By Jerry Newport, Mary Newport, Johnny Dodd
Simon & Schuster, 2007

This autobiography is written from the separate perspectives of Jerry and Mary Newport, two individuals with Asperger's Syndrome, who met in their middle years, fell in love, separated, and reunited. The book goes much farther back in both their lives, though, giving readers a glimpse into the lives that shaped these two people.

This book is valuable reading for parents of children with autism for at least one reason: your children will not always be children. They will grow up into adults, and as such they will be dealing with the desires and demands of the adult world. The Newports, especially Jerry, are unflinchingly honest about their romantic and sexual experiences. It's a valuable examination of the subject of sexuality and disability. It's an understatement to say that this subject is underexamined; most of the time it is ignored completely.

For anyone else, this book is just good reading. The stories Jerry and Mary share range from funny to uplifting to tragic to downright terrifying. Jerry's stories resonate with me because I know that my son will face many of the same kinds of frustrations and anxieties that Jerry experienced. Mary's stories simply amaze me. This woman ran away to Haight-Ashbury at the age of 15. Her parents placed her in the custody of a religious cult that eventually abandoned her and her newborn baby in Europe. And that's really just the beginning of her stories. It's amazing that she lived through it, and her unique perspectives are equally amazing--sometimes shocking.

Their story was made into a movie in 2005--I'm going to have to add that to my Netflix.