The first book, as the title suggests, is a collection of vignettes of Robison's adventures with his son, Cubby. Any parent will appreciate the lengths to which Robison went to enjoy his son, to offer him a variety of experiences, and to help him explore his interests. Since both father and son have Asperger's. their adventures are perhaps a bit more quirky than many of ours. I especially liked their practice of buying small amounts of stock in companies, then showing up at a work site to request a tour of "their" property. They were aided by the fact that they arrived in a pristine, vintage Rolls Royce, bought cheap and carefully restored by Robison. When someone shows up in a Rolls, says he's a share holder, and requests a tour, people can be pretty accommodating.
His stories are amusing, but it sometimes felt as if I were reading someone's blog which, while it may be interesting to close friend and family, and as a means of chronicling events for Cubby's later perusal, got a bit tiresome for me. I will say that although this is not a manual for parenting children with Asperger's, I can imagine that many parents will be nodding in recognition as they read about Cubby's obsessive behaviors, social skills, and difficulties at school.
The second part of the book deals with Cubby's obsession with explosives, and the legal trouble he got into as a result. As a teen, Cubby took a deep interest in chemistry. He studied voraciously and became an expert (an expert at his trial he had a level of knowledge equivalent to a PhD candidate in chemistry), especially with explosive compounds. He was always safe and not destructive, but local police got wind of his work and overreacted. The DA thought she had a great career-building case and pursued Cubby as if he were a 9/11 bomber.
This part of the book serves as a cautionary tale of the damage caused by an overreaching government. Even though Cubby was fully cooperative and truthful with investigators, and his lab in his mother's basement was safe and legal, the police still treated the house like it was an al Qaeda bomb factory, trashing it and then sending his mom a bill. Then even though the police found nothing for which to arrest Cubby, the DA pressed charges, costing Cubby's family thousands of dollars in legal fees and months and months of stress. At one point Robison says Cubby is interested in libertarian politics. After the experience he had with the legal system, I can't blame him!
One early theme that stood out to me, and that many parents of children with special needs can relate to, is the Robison's struggles with the school system. In the dedication, Robison notes that Cubby's mother "grabbed hold of the school system, shook hard, and made them accommodate our kid." I love that description. The same could be said of my wife! Later he talks about attempting to get special services for their hard-to-classify son. "Public schools have a legal obligation to make education accessible to kids who are impaired or have learning disabilities. The two things they don't have an obligation to remediate are 'dumb' and 'stubborn,' so that's what they wanted him to be." So true.
Robison is a gifted writer whose style and content captures the Asperger's-tinged perspective and attitude of both father and son. Readers, especially those with a family member on the spectrum will enjoy getting to know the Robison family.
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