Book: The
Reason I Jump
Author: Naoki
Higashida
Number of pages: 149
What I’m watching: TV: Bones, Community, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Movies: Battle Royale 2, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Sabrina, The
Aristocrats
What I’m playing: Dead Rising 2, Little Big Planet, Beyond: Two Souls,
Bulletstorm, Dark Souls
I
heard about The Reason I Jump from The Daily Show. It’s about autism by a
young teenager from Japan who has autism. For a long time now I’ve been learning
about the disorder. I forget how I first heard about autism. Probably Rain Man. The autism spectrum came up a
number of times in high school and college psychology courses. When I was a
teenager myself, I read Mark Haddon’s The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, a fictional novel written
from the perspective of a boy with autism. Haddon had experience working with
autistic people which helped inform his writing. To keep it brief, Curious Incident is my favorite book of
all-time and I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone. I found it immensely moving,
both funny and sad and, to my understanding, an insightful depiction of a
person’s experience with autism. Now, The
Reason I Jump provides a real-life personal account from a young person
with autism, a rare case because difficulty communicating is a big part of
autism.
David
Mitchell1 introduces the text. Turns out the main audience the book
is geared toward is parents caring for an autistic child. That explains why I
found this book in the “Children with Special Needs” section at Barnes &
Noble. I don’t have any kids, but the number of children with autism seems to
be rising.2 So I figure, whether or not it affects my immediate
family, I’m better off better understanding autism.
Communication
is very limited for people with autism, so Naoki describes learning a special
technique his mom created to help him write. It was difficult for him, but he
writes that “what kept me hammering away at it was the thought that to live my
life as a human being, nothing is more important than being able to express
myself” (7). Already, I find Naoki’s account incredible.
The
general format of the book is a Q&A. Naoki answers questions about
different aspects of autism, often asking why he does certain things or how he
feels about certain other things. Interspersed throughout are short stories
written by Naoki because he’s also a creative writer, which I think is pretty
cool. The first batch of questions concerns communication and talking, like “Why do you ask the same questions over and
over?” and “Do you find childish
language easier to understand?” When Naoki answers the question “Do you prefer to be on your own?” I
think he hits on a very essential part of autism:
I can’t believe that anyone born as a human being really wants to be
left all on their own, not really. No, for people with autism, what we’re
anxious about is that we’re causing trouble for the rest of you, or even
getting on your nerves. This is why
it’s hard for us to stay around other people. This is why we often end up being
left on our own.
The truth is, we’d love to be with other people. But things never, ever
go right, we end up getting used to being alone, without even noticing this is
happening. Whenever I overhear someone remark how much I prefer being on my
own, it makes me feel desperately lonely. (27)
Autistic people want to join in and
communicate, but the stress and the struggle make it hard. Autism is not the
same as introversion. They may want to talk to others, but they can’t.
Next
are questions about emotions and behavior. Naoki discusses his memory and
attention. Throughout his answers, Naoki repeatedly brings up that he is aware
that his autism places stress on his family and how bad that makes him feel.
That’s tough.
The Reason I Jump ends with a longer
short story by Naoki about a boy who dies and goes to Heaven. At first it
reminded me of The Twilight Zone, but
then it was more like What Dreams May
Come.3 So the kid’s in Heaven, except he can’t enjoy it because
he knows how much his parents are suffering in their grief, especially his
mother. So he decides to be reborn as their next kid, which means sacrificing
his identity to give his parents some happiness. It’s a touching good story.
All
in all, The Reason I Jump wasn’t the
mind-opening experience I expected. I was already fairly familiar with autism,
but for someone first learning about the disorder, this book would be
incredibly helpful. Still, Naoki Higashida’s book is a wholly worthwhile
contribution to the literature of understanding autism.
Verdict (Is the book staying or going?): Staying.
Notes
1. I wanted to see Cloud Atlas when it came out, but I never got around to it.
2. Now more than 1 in 100 children in
the US.
3. Both of which I love.
Works
Cited
Higashida, Naoki. The Reason I Jump. Trans. KA Yoshida and David Mitchell.
New York:
Random House, 2013. Print.
