Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.89820092
EAN num: 9780812926408
ISBN number: 0812926404
Label: Crown
Manufacturer: Crown
Page Count: 290
Printing Date: July 09, 1996
Publishing house: Crown
Release Date: July 09, 1996
Sale Popularity Level: 565118
Studio: Crown
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Product Description:
The bestselling author of Nobody Nowhere and Somebody Somewhere offers an intimate diary of the universal joys and stresses of falling in lo ve as she continues her struggle with autism. 'Donna Williams isn't just teaching us what it is like to be austistic. She is teaching us what it is like to be human.'--Deborah Tannen, New York Times Book Review.
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Rated by buyers 
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Autistic author Donna Williams never knew what it was to feel her hand and her leg at the same time let alone experience herself and other person within one moment of processing. Nor did she know the difference between real felt communication and the push button learned 'talking doll' responses and charicatures that made up almost all of her so called 'purposeful' communication and actions with others.
Now, in her new relationship with Ian, an Asexual man with 'multiple personalities' and somewhere on the Autistic Spectrum, finding out what is real from what is not becomes their life's quest.
With hilarious and reckless results they develop an NLP like strategy called 'checking' which appeals only to the feeling part of the brain and gets around stored learned responses. This 'checking' essentially triggers the thoughts, feelings and choices of the 'real self' buried under society-endorsed robotic facades and socially reinforced learned charicatures.
Like chainsaws in the rainforest of their lives, they pledge to follow through at all costs with what they find are their real wants and likes. The results are that they throw out much of the household furniture, their clothes, the contents of the cupboards and then realise they want to be married (but fail to check that it is actually to each other!) so, within a two week very Autistic marriage preparation, they recklessly marry one another!
Intertwined with their hilarious and surreal story is the story of their friendship with Alex, a functionally non-verbal teenager who knows all about being rather multiple, Autistic and out of control of one's own appearance, utterances and actions. Alex has just managed to communicate for the very first time in his life through typing and afraid of being left behind by his reckless friends, he pleads movingly with great power and beauty through this only voice he has, not to be left behind. Along the way Donna, Ian and Alex all journey into the world of Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome and discover the world beyond visual fragmentation, meaning blindness, face blindness and fragmented bodies as they see each other and the world as cohesive, whole and three dimensional for the very first time.
You will laugh and you will cry, you will cringe and you will cheer your way through Like Colour To The Blind.
Rated by buyers 
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This book is a sequel to Nobody Nowhere and Somebody Somewhere, and makes more sense in that context.
This book has moments I was really glad to see written about. The author describes seeing autistic people forced into an act of normality, with their teachers ignoring their real selves. I also liked the descriptions of acquiring tinted glasses and meeting a local autistic teenager. There were many scenes scattered through the book that I am glad I read about, and I liked the very first part where the author said she'd been a nobody nowhere and a somebody somewhere but now wanted to be an anybody anywhere, and her friend said "You blew that in a big way."
Unfortunately, the bulk of the book revolves around a number of dead ends and convoluted paths the author stumbles into when attempting to live her life as herself rather than a bunch of characters and compulsive facades. It gives the impression that she is stumbling around in the dark, going the wrong way often, and describing every wrong turn in minute detail. She describes resisting her compulsive "defenses" by doing the opposite of what they want (with the predictable result that she ends up not much freer for doing that), and forcing herself to the point of complete physical immobility by trying to go back into her childhood to find a point where she was not using echo to move or speak.
She does these things along with her autistic housemate (who becomes her husband after the results of a "checking" ritual tell them both that they want to marry each other), and I think from experience that this whole section of the book should come with a warning label along the lines of, "Autistic people: Don't try this at home." The author does notice at some point that she may be leading autistic people down a misguided path, but most of the book does not show a lot of critical thinking in this regard. It's rarely stated clearly which things are mistakes and which things are good ideas, but an overlarge portion of the book is dedicated to an excruciatingly detailed account of false starts, false successes, and unsuccessful-sounding attempts to deal with compulsions.
Rated by buyers 
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again, Donna Williams takes us through the eyes of an autistic person. Shes amazing, but you should read Nobody Nowhere first, because that is the stroy of her life, and it might help you understand this book more.
Rated by buyers -
Before I read this book I didn't know anything about autism, and I didnt even realize what the auther's mental condition was until a fair way into the book. I happened to pick up this book at the library (catchy title, I guess), and loved it. This is not so much a story about autism, but rather a painfully personal account of the difficulties involved in sharing a life with another human being.
Rated by buyers -
"Like Colour to the Blind" is the third book by Donna Williams, after "Nobody Nowhere" and "Somebody Somewhere" but it could easily stand by itself. Donna, who is autistic, puts forth an amazing effort to break through the socially acceptable masks that she had grown in order to relate to society. She is in a relationship with a man who has similar problems, and they help each other as much as they can. A very important part of this book is the account of Irlen filters, tinted lenses that reduce the many symptoms of visual overload. Anyone who has thought about obtaining these lenses should read this, as it is a very eloquent account of these problems and their disappearance. The author, though going through understandable rough periods, seems to put all of her free effort into retaining who she is. I could use any number of cliche's here (touching, great read, etc) but I will just say that I loved this book and I hope that other people will, too.
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