In his extraordinary ode to neurodivergence, Nine Minds: Inner Lives on the Spectrum, Daniel Tammet, neurodivergent himself, plies language in the service of nine very different minds. Eschewing direct quotation, he gently (often oh so gently) retells their experiences (relying on copious interviews of and around his subjects) now and in the past, happy and sad, showing us innermost fears and joys while sketching the public personas involved. Some of the “minds” are super functioning in the way we imagine for autistic savants: a hand and wrist surgeon of international repute who nonetheless cannot remember faces; freakish comedian Dan Ackroyd, so different in humor and in life from an early age; a “murder detective” with an uncanny ability to solve crimes others give up on; a freakishly talented mathematician; a blind woman attuned to famous Australian poet Les Murray, himself autistic: a nonverbal man reared with extraordinary love by his mother. Never preaching, never even teaching, Tammet is a deeply sympathetic stylist whose nine stories all differ but all reinforce the central message of universality of love and connection and hope. Nine Minds is a special read, one I commend.
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