John Elder Robison admits that the memories in each of the books about his family vary on certain details, but he argues that the inconsistencies don't detract from the bigger picture. "When my brother published that book and people began to read it and they would say things like, 'Oh, I'm just so impressed that you grew up in those difficult circumstances and yet you're as successful as you are,' I came to realize that our stories could be inspirational and not shameful and humiliating," he says. He says it was his brother's book that changed the way he thought about his own life. Now he has written his own memoir and a new book on living with Asperger's called Be Different. My mother says that, I say that, we agree," he says.ĭiagnosed with Asperger's syndrome as an adult, John Elder Robison says he used to be ashamed to talk about his childhood. Turcotte, before he spiraled into his own nuttiness, was a brilliant guy.
Although her oldest son, John Elder Robison, left home at age 16 to escape the chaos in his family, he still credits the psychiatrist with initially providing great help.īe Different: Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian with Practical Advice for Aspergians, Misfits, Families & Teachers Robison's memoir describes her psychotic breakdowns and the time she spent in mental hospitals, as well as her eventual realization that the psychiatrist was doing more harm than good. He saw the possibility that he could kill himself or some of us. "I think he actually saved my family's life," she says. Robison says Turcotte - who seems like an irresponsible quack in Burroughs' memoir - was, at least in the beginning, a stabilizing force in her life. I cared about him I didn't want him to kill himself." "I was also afraid he might hurt us, because he could be very violent. "John said he would kill himself if I left him, and I think I believed that," Robison says. Even though the marriage soured, she stayed in it because she felt she had to. Robison, was the head of the philosophy department at the University of Massachusetts. But in those days, women were expected to marry, so she did. Raised by an overly critical mother in a small Southern town, she had dreams of being an artist. Robison says she wanted to write the book so she could have a better understanding of her life. In fact, she says she began it long before his was published. But Robison is emphatic that her book is not a response to her son's. Now, her own memoir gives Margaret Robison a chance to explain her side of the story. "And they sought couples counseling with a psychiatrist." very, very heavy alcoholic," Burroughs says.
"She had a very difficult marriage with my father, who was a. However, Burroughs went on to say there were many times when the light left her eyes and she would get a look that meant that the exuberant mother was gone, replaced by a woman with a serious mental illness, trapped in a bad marriage. She filled her life with a lot of projects and interests." Or she would be talking on the phone - she had lots of friends.
"She would paint, and if she wasn't painting, she would be writing, and if she wasn't writing, she would spend hours and hours doing a pen and ink illustration. "My mother was always very exuberant," he told Terry Gross. Burroughs doesn't want to talk about his mother's memoir, either, but he did speak about her several years ago in an interview on Fresh Air: But the book he wrote, under the name Augusten Burroughs, hurt her deeply and the two no longer speak. The fact is, she knew her son as Chris Robison, and she has fond, warm memories of him. 27, 2003įor the Robison family, one truth is that Augusten Burroughs is a stranger to Margaret Robison. COMMENTARY: The Terror of Mother's Sewing Machine Nov.