This work is truly remarkable. A MUST for anyone who has or knows someone with Autism.....

Well, if you want to get more of an idea of autism, where better than from the autobiography of an autistic woman?

This was partly why I started reading this book, having contact with some kids with autism, and also being aware that it's not an `either/or' dichotomy: all of us are somewhere on a long continuum. However along the way there was so much wild trauma going on with Williams' abusive family and multiple personalities it became very difficult to distinguish what in her life was a result of her autism and what was a refection of circumstances or other complicating psychological conditions. I will be curious to see if there are any Amazon reviews written by autistics and how they reacted. I wouldn't be surprised if, while they are glad to see awareness raised, many would be dismayed to think Donna came to represent a popular image of what autistic people are like (cf. the deaf community dealing with Peter Goldsworthy's Wish).

As a foil, I was quite impressed by Mark Haddon's 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time', both as an insight into the world of a lead character who is autistic and as a decent fictional story in it's own right. Nobody Nowhere is trying to do something entirely different, although it also has a narrator who's not entirely self-aware. I also note that at least one autistic guy gave enthusiastic praise that one of us `neuro-normals' had got it so right. Still, Haddon's lead character, while having a family with its own difficulties, has nothing on Donna's nightmare.

I suppose the really tricky part for me in this review is that after a while I really got to a point of disliking Donna. A dangerous thing to say: "A-ha - he doesn't like an autistic girl - he must be a bigot." Well, I hope not, and on further reflection I suspect not. Indeed, it's more bigoted to say, "That person is autistic, I must, therefore, like them." Like that nasty self-deceptive patronising racism that says something like, "I just love Mexicans - they're so cute. I love their funny hats and have a couple of CDs of that wonderful guitar music." Donna, like a lot of us, has her problems, many of which are not her own fault. However, we do get shaped by our circumstances, and not always in positive ways - not always in ways that make us good company. So much of Donna's self analysis I found pretty dubious: hey, I don't always understand why I act the way I do - I'm pretty sure that neither does Donna. Sure it's interesting, indeed, primary, to hear her perspective (and you really sympathise with her trying to make sense, to find some explanation for her personal history) - but I found myself often unconvinced.

Particularly hard going were the ubiquitous contradictory actions along the lines of, "I really liked this guy, he was so considerate and I wanted desperately to be with him - so I abused him and forced him to leave." Moreover there is a real contempt for, well, most other people. They can make all sorts of efforts to reach out to Donna, to allow for her, while she treats them horribly, but somehow they are always seen to be at fault:

"I found that people were usually blinded by their own insecurities or egotism or selfishness. People seemed so ignorant in their self-assured black and white conception of `normality'. Every so often, however, someone would wonder whether others had something to learn from me in trying to understand my differentness. Some people could sense the courage it took to teach myself so many things like the music I wrote with such depth and passion."

But if you're looking for blindness stemming from insecurities, egotism or selfishness, strewth, Donna is there for you. Even in this excerpt she unabashedly talks of the depth and passion of her music, elsewhere she's clearly convinced of her intellectual superiority to just about anyone: say, for example, any university lecturer who doesn't recognise her genius.

So, sorry, somewhere around the above quote, about three-quarters of the way through the book I thought to myself: I don't think I'm learning anything much about autism here, and I really don't like hanging around with this confused, arrogant and often unpleasant woman. I bailed.

Donna Williams was very fortunate to know she had autism and was contending with an "unexplained difference" that was really not her fault. She has suffered major losses at an early age. When she was 4, her beloved grandfather died and her grandmother left their home. Her father was not allowed to have any contact with her and her mother was described as suffering from alcoholism and a myriad of phobias. She cherishes the hope that Donna will fulfill her own dream of being a dancer.

Donna has adopted internal personalities to cope with the rigid demands that are placed upon her. Her personalities range from a militant, in-your-face civil rights supporter to a blandly smiling woman who placidly voices agreement.

Carol is the placid personality; it is "Carol" who goes along with the mother's dreams of dancing and acts as a buffer for Donna. Donna's autistic behavior and sensory responses make perfect sense and those on the autism/Asperger's (a/A) continuum will certainly recognize many of them. The Carol personality is by far and away the easiest for other people; it is Carol who tries to gentle militant Willie and protect Donna from punishment.

Donna views herself as an observer as Carol and Willie vie for dominance in her body. By the time Donna hits the teens, she lives a nomadic lifestyle coping with these two radically different personalities.

Things finally come to a head and Donna makes a suicide attempt. Luckily she is treated by a psychiatrist and later earns a degree. Sadly trusting and lacking safety savvy, Donna goes off with a strange man and leaves her home country. He abandons her and she resumes a sad, nomadic hand-to-mouth nomadic lifestyle.

Donna meets another man with whom she falls in love. He shares many of her autism challenges and she is determined to find out what her challenges are. Once she learns that she has autism, she has changed the diagnosis and confirmation of same for the better permanently.

Donna's Long & Winding Road will be one many people on the a/A spectrum and those familiar with a/A will readily understand. This is a serious, intense book that will inspire readers and, for adults newly diagnosed with autism, soften the blow of acknowledging having a place on the a/A spectrum.

Donna Williams' books on her life and autism are among the best in print. She has written a number of very scholarly works that will prove helpful to anybody looking for information about autism from an insider's point of view. I strongly recommend " Autism-An Inside-Out Approach: An Innovative Look at the Mechanics of 'Autism' and Its Developmental 'Cousins'." This is a scholarly book that analyzes various popular treatments for people with autism; sensory responses and how many treatments are not appropriate and teach clients "to give the desired response at best" and become more adept "at hiding problems" than they ever helped. Donna Williams' books are invaluable sources of helpful information.

I wrote a reaction paper on this book for my exceptional child psychology class. The book was not only interesting to read but educational since it was an autobiography written by someone who expereinced growing up with autism. I think this is a must read for anyone interested in autism since it gives you an inside perspective.

At the age of four Donna's main carers are gone when her grandfather dies and her grandmother is sent away. Now, with her surreal and eccentric father basically banned from contact with her, she becomes the possession of a disability-phobic, obsessive, disturbed and alcoholic mother who is determined to play out her own lost childhood and make her seemingly deaf, somewhat 'psychotic' and disturbed idiot daughter a pretty and perfect dancing doll.

But inside of Donna there are other people she has collected along her road to survival; Willie who is like a civil rights activist on steroids and the smiling facade of Carol.

Carol plays the mother's doll to protect the soul of the real Donna. Intertwined with Willie's violent and defensive outbursts and paranoic protection and Donna's often bizarre and quite Autistic responses and behaviours, Carol, behaving like people on TV sit-coms, goes to school,even goes through the motions of 'friends', and develops a broad range of mimicked speech, stored phrases and charicatures, saving Donna from a life in an institution and often from the very real threat of death.

As the teenage years approach Carol and Willie fight it out for control of the body with the real Donna on the sidelines as the lot of them drift into homelessness, poverty and domestic prostitution passed from stranger to stranger.

After an attempted suicide she falls into the care of a psychiatrist and goes on to get a university education. But knowlege is not wisdom and without independence skills, Donna follows a stranger across the ocean where, on arrival, he abandons her to an itinerant bag-lady existance throughout Europe. This second journey begins with a man who will change her life and sense of self forever as she meets and falls in love with a real life 'mirror'with the same challenges as her own and, later faced with the loss of this first deep love, goes on a desperate and dangerous quest to find out 'what kind of mad' she is in the hope there is hope she can change it and as a result finds out she is Autistic; a realisation that ends up changing the entire field of Developmental Disabilities forever.

An international bestseller, in over 17 languages throughout the world, Nobody Nowhere is a moving, gripping, surreal, myth-shattering, sometimes hilarious but ultimately uplifting book and one that will stay with you as one of the most moving and exceptional works you will ever read.

Life, 'normality' and 'reality' will not be the same after you read this book.