By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

Robison is just a great storyteller — turning some of the weirdest, craziest stuff into a life you almost envy him having. The author is the older brother that Augusten Burroughs wrote about in his memoir, Running With Scissors, in the chapter, ‘He was Raised Without a Diagnosis’.

That diagnosis would not come until he was 40. Up to then he was on his own to cope with his genius, his unsociable behavior, his bewilderment, and his loneliness. Robison sums up his early relations with the world: “Everyone thought they understood my behavior. They thought it was simple: I was just no good.”

It wasn’t simple though. All his life he had longed to connect with other people, and gradually he figured out how to do that, despite his Asperger’s. But it took awhile, and his alcoholic father and mentally ill mother weren’t much help. Teachers hadn’t heard of Asperger’s yet, and eventually he left school at 16.

Following his interests in explosives and electronics led him into the music industry, where eccentric people were the norm (guess who made the exploding guitars for Kiss?), then into electronic toys, and finally — into his own, true life.