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A review by lizshayne
The Electricity of Every Living Thing: A Woman's Walk In The Wild To Find Her Way Home by Katherine May
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
This book made me understand why I never cared about Jewish representation in books—I didn't need to see my Jewish identity reflected in books, I need/ed to see my autistic identity.
I definitely did. May's narrative of needing to discover herself again, of discovering what autistic identity means, of what it feels like to be on the edge of coping and thinking you're fine until your not, of the experience of parenting while autistic was all gorgeously reflective.
And yes, our lives are different and we struggled with different things and yet the experience itself was the "oh, strangers like me are out there".
It's also just a really lovely book about finding yourself after having a kid and taking permission to be yourself and to ask others to shoulder some of the load when you need to be (by) yourself.
In terms of the actual language of the book, it's extremely clear between when she wrote it and when the 2021 paperback edition came out how much autism awareness & acceptance has changed. The language she uses reflects that and the foreword at the beginning is where she talks about both what she didn't yet know then and knows now. I'm glad the foreword exists and also grateful for the narrative of change and growth that it shows.
I definitely did. May's narrative of needing to discover herself again, of discovering what autistic identity means, of what it feels like to be on the edge of coping and thinking you're fine until your not, of the experience of parenting while autistic was all gorgeously reflective.
And yes, our lives are different and we struggled with different things and yet the experience itself was the "oh, strangers like me are out there".
It's also just a really lovely book about finding yourself after having a kid and taking permission to be yourself and to ask others to shoulder some of the load when you need to be (by) yourself.
In terms of the actual language of the book, it's extremely clear between when she wrote it and when the 2021 paperback edition came out how much autism awareness & acceptance has changed. The language she uses reflects that and the foreword at the beginning is where she talks about both what she didn't yet know then and knows now. I'm glad the foreword exists and also grateful for the narrative of change and growth that it shows.