In 1982, at age four, Kamran Nazeer was enrolled in a small school in New York City alongside a dozen other children diagnosed with autism. Calling themselves the Idiots, these kids received care that was at the cutting edge of developmental psychology. Kamran visits four of his old classmates to find out the kind of lives that they are living now, how much they've been able to overcome--and what remains missing. They reveal a thought-provoking spectrum of behavior: a speechwriter unable to make eye contact; a messenger who gets upset if anyone touches his bicycle; a depressive suicide victim; and a computer engineer who communicates emotions through hand puppets. Using his own experiences to examine such topics as the difficulties of language, conversation as performance, and the politics of civility, this is also a rare and provocative exploration of the way that people learn to think and feel.--From publisher description.
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