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| Songs of the Gorilla Nation: My Journey Through Autism | 
| Author: Dawn Phd Prince-hughes
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $5.50
You Save: $7.45 (58%)
New (29) from $7.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 33695
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 1400082153
Dewey Decimal Number: 300
EAN: 9781400082155
ASIN: 1400082153
Publication Date: March 22, 2005
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Beautifully Written Book. December 12, 2004
11 out of 14 found this review helpful
Dawn Prince Hughes has written a her story in such a beautiful style. I love the memoir format and couldn't put this one down. I only wish it had been longer. This is a must read for anyone dealing with Autism, anyone who loves animals and anyone who has a soul in general. Don't listen to the couple of ignorant homophobes(Dawn Prince Hughes is a lesbian) who gave a negative review. This is a must read.
An Enlightening, Informative, Well-Written True Story October 23, 2004
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
In her inspiring memoir, Dr. Dawn Prince-Hughes, the gifted
primatologist who happens to have Asperger's syndrome, has given us an account of her passage from an isolated, private world to the world of people. As the fascinating, sometimes poignant narrative reveals, the author's journey was not without its rough times and I found msyelf wanting to hold her hand and cheer her on as she struggled to overcome the barriers to growing up that she encountered. Prince-Hughes' story is invaluable for its glimpse of autism from within.
Her social migrations took her to the zoo, where she learned about and befriended gorillas. She became so adept at observing their behavior, including their social overtures and responses, that she went on to study anthropology at university.
As suggested by the title of her book, which speaks of a "nation" of gorillas, the author reconstructs the primate world wherein people and gorillas are subsumed emotionally, socially, and spiritually under the same rubric.
Readers of this book will learn to value human differences. Instead of becoming alarmed by them, to believe autists can neither be helped nor help themselves, we learn to appreciate human variation and to value the original, surprising, and inventive ideas and perspectives of autistic people.
 some poignant passages in an uneven and disappointing work October 18, 2004
14 out of 32 found this review helpful
Drawn to the book by an interview with the author on Jane Pauly, and bolstered by favorable reviews I saw here, I purchased the book. I am interested in the plight of those who live and think outside the box, and who overcome special challenges. The beginning was very strong, and contained some poignant and poetic prose passages (it does also contain some poetry, which struck me as less than memorable).
But once the book shifted over to the author's sexual proclivities and activities, it was almost like another author had taken over. The tone became whiney and self-absorbed.
From that point on, the book remained wildly inconsistent, with some great passages, in the midst of mundane musings worthy of an adolescent's diary. The author's non-mainstream sexual preferences are given thorough coverage, and I wasn't quite sure of the reason.
In the end, I have to say it was a noble effort for an autistic person to have written such a book, and I suspect that fact may have wow'ed reviewers into giving it higher marks than it merits. Any book must be judged on its own merit, and the quality of writing is too inconsistent to rate much more than 3 stars.
If Your Child Has Aspergers, Read This & Check A Mirror October 10, 2004
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
Like the author herself, my exploration of Asperger's Syndrome began because someone suggested that my son had it when he was just over two-years old. Dawn Prince-Hughes had a child within her family who had been diagnosed, and this revelation caused her to eventually seek her own diagnosis. While I long suspected that my husband might have AS, little did I know that seeing Prince-Hughes on television for 30 seconds would be like looking at myself in a mirror; nor did I expect that reading this book would result in many other instances of self-recognition.
In a quote from one of my son's favorite movies, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," and if you have a child who has AS or another autistic spectrum disorder, you need to reevaluate the way you yourself relate to the world. In my own case, I feel that meeting Dawn Prince-Hughes through this book is like meeting a lost twin sister.
The major thesis that Prince-Hughes drives home is that far from being devoid of emotion, she is full of more emotional depth than most people ever dream of. Although she has at times been unable to communicate her emotions to others, she has felt the highs and lows of life deeply. Her observations of gorillas and other facets of nature are stunning, and her way of weaving her poetic images into a factual narrative is entrancing.
Contrary to what one critic above wrote, Prince-Hughes is a gifted writer. Her manner of expressing herself is a vital part of her gift, the very great gift that she is giving to AS people, gorilla people and all of life by telling her story.
Beautifully crafted story with authentic voice October 6, 2004
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
If you want to read a piece of fiction by someone who doesn't have Asperger's Syndrome, by all means, read "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time." But if you want to learn how a person travels from earliest memories of being different to the coping skills gleaned from a lifetime of educating yourself, you must read Prince-Hughes' book. Dawn's journey is at once painful and joyous, with vignettes that even people who are not on the autism spectrum can relate to. The fact that Dawn's best teacher was a gorilla man named Congo goes to show that if you don't make judgments about other beings, your eyes will witness a world beyond your limited human prejudices. Through the lessons from Congo and his gorilla family, Dawn has created and nurtured her own human family. Not an easy feat for any of us, but even more impressive for a woman who was "socialized" by gorillas. If I could rate this higher than 5 stars, I would. An absolute gem!
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