The Reason I Jump

Naoki Higashida was13 years old when he wrote this. Diagnosed with “autistic tendancies” aged 6 he struggled to verbalise and learnt to express himself through an alphabet grid.
Here he answers typical questions asked to those with autism such as “why don't you make eye contact when you're talking?” and “why do you like spinning?”. Each answer is a couple of pages of his reasoning behind these actions (or inactions) and interspersed beween them are a couple of his short stories with a longer one at the end of the book. This final piece of fiction elicits empathy and is beautifully written.
I was unaware, until afterwards when I read reviews, that there was controversy over the authorship, whether it had been embellished or mistranslated etc. I felt that it reads as believable and truthful, he comes across as an intelligent, well-read teenager, keen both to learn and to teach. He has thought hard about his answers and expresses them clearly.
My only criticism is that he uses “we” and “us” throughout his explanations. I doubt it is the same for every person on the autistic scale. Perhaps it is the innocence of youth to think you can speak so confidently for 1% of the population. Especially when some will never be able to tell us what they are experiencing.
Regardless, it has opened my eyes and will make me think more as to why some of the people I know do such things. Armed with this knowledge I shall endeavour to make my interactions with them more comfortable.