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A review by batrock
Late Bloomer: How an Autism Diagnosis Changed My Life by Clem Bastow
5.0
Disclaimer: Clem is my friend, and I’m named in the acknowledgements of this one.
Clem Bastow’s Late Bloomer: How An Autism Diagnosis Changed My Life seems like it should be uncontroversial. It’s a memoir, and you can’t argue with Bastow’s lived experience. When Bastow talks about autism, she backs everything that she says with sources and interviews, and she acknowledges the popular “wisdom” that it is very easy to disagree with — while giving completely understandable reasons for the disagreement. There’s a great deal of centring “autism parents” in society at the expense of autistic children, and Late Bloomer shows exactly why this is not the approach.
Late Bloomer is funny and informative, and written by an absolute legend. Hopefully this will become a text that people will consult rather than listening to the condescending, harmful and dehumanising rhetoric spouted by popular, celebrity endorsed “charities”.
Bastow’s work is a good jumping off point for further research, pointing out where you do and don’t want to go, but it’s also a more than workable memoir. My only issue with it comes down to user error: I didn’t realise I was at the end, and I turned the page and ended up in the epilogue, which is more of an appendix. The emotional climax (such a thing is possible — Clem’s finale is quite affecting) was drowned out and I had to go back. It’s Less’s Proust problem all over again.
(On a personal level, it’s weird to read a memoir of someone that you know. Parts of Late Bloomer can be found almost verbatim in my Facebook Messenger history. This will of course not be the case for most readers.)
Clem Bastow’s Late Bloomer: How An Autism Diagnosis Changed My Life seems like it should be uncontroversial. It’s a memoir, and you can’t argue with Bastow’s lived experience. When Bastow talks about autism, she backs everything that she says with sources and interviews, and she acknowledges the popular “wisdom” that it is very easy to disagree with — while giving completely understandable reasons for the disagreement. There’s a great deal of centring “autism parents” in society at the expense of autistic children, and Late Bloomer shows exactly why this is not the approach.
Late Bloomer is funny and informative, and written by an absolute legend. Hopefully this will become a text that people will consult rather than listening to the condescending, harmful and dehumanising rhetoric spouted by popular, celebrity endorsed “charities”.
Bastow’s work is a good jumping off point for further research, pointing out where you do and don’t want to go, but it’s also a more than workable memoir. My only issue with it comes down to user error: I didn’t realise I was at the end, and I turned the page and ended up in the epilogue, which is more of an appendix. The emotional climax (such a thing is possible — Clem’s finale is quite affecting) was drowned out and I had to go back. It’s Less’s Proust problem all over again.
(On a personal level, it’s weird to read a memoir of someone that you know. Parts of Late Bloomer can be found almost verbatim in my Facebook Messenger history. This will of course not be the case for most readers.)