A born storyteller, Robison takes you inside the head of a boy whom teachers and other adults regarded as “defective,” who could not avail himself of KISS’s endless supply of groupies, and who still has a peculiar aversion to using people’s given names (he calls his wife “Unit Two”).
Look Me in the Eye is the moving, darkly funny story of growing up with Asperger’s at a time when the diagnosis simply didn’t exist. That understanding transformed the way Robison saw himself-and the world. It was not until he was forty that an insightful therapist told him he had the form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome. But the higher Robison rose in the company, the more he had to pretend to be “normal” and do what he simply couldn’ communicate. Later, he drifted into a “real” job, as an engineer for a major toy company. It was no wonder he gravitated to machines, which could, at least, be counted on.Īfter fleeing his parents and dropping out of high school, his savant-like ability to visualize electronic circuits landed him a gig with KISS, for whom he created their legendary fire-breathing guitars. Ever since he was small, John Robison had longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits-an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs, avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes (and stick his younger brother in them)-had earned him the label “social deviant.” No guidance came from his mother, who conversed with light fixtures, or his father, who spent evenings pickling himself in sherry.
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