Born on a Blue Day: A Memoir
By: Daniel Tammet / Narrated By: Simon Vance
Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
Very good; just keep in mind that Tammet is rare…
A lot of the kids I work with are on the Spectrum, so I’ve GOTTA preface this with: Daniel Tammet is fantastic/Daniel Tammet’s abilities are raaaaare…!
What I liked most about this is Tammet going to great lengths to describe that yes, he’s a Savant, but no, life hasn’t been easy for him.
From the get-go, he treats us to what life is like for him in his mind, how days, how numbers have shapes and colors. The day he was born was indeed blue with that feeling, that essence firmly formed in his mind, and he goes on to describe the other colors and numbers. It all seems pretty awesome until he discusses what life has been like for him up to the writing of the book.
First, let’s just get it outta the way: This is a story with a certain amount of distance between him and us as receivers of his stories. That’s because there’s a GREAT amount of distance between him and emotional connection. This goes hand and hand, to a greater or lesser extent, with being on the spectrum. Tho’ we feel for him mightily, he suffered severe seizures as a child, and who wants that?, he himself will be the first to tell you that he didn’t particularly care for anyone as a child. He grew up in a household with ooooodles of siblings, and it wasn’t until his brother discovered aspects of his, Daniel’s, abilities that his brother felt there was anything at all to smile about. The family went to great lengths to keep the household quiet as Daniel would become agitated like crazy whenever things got boisterous and joyous, and they tiptoed around, knowing that Daniel would become agitated… like crazy… whenever there was any change in Daniel’s routines.
I didn’t really start feeling for him until he became an older kid, a young man, and then he tells us that all he wanted in this world was to be loved and accepted, after he discovered that he’s gay. The sweetest most heartwarming incident occurred with his first crush, and that boy told him, in the gentlest of ways, that no, he could not be The One for Daniel. It was the kindest and most compassionate brushoff I’ve ever heard, and it was just the sensitivity that was required.
After that, I really started getting a sense of who Daniel was, and I very much began reeeeally admiring the heck outta him. When you’ve been around individuals who are challenged by Asperger’s or autism, you see just how important feeling secure is, and it generally comes with sticking to routines. I dunno if it had anything to do with his savant abilities, dunno, but Daniel soon just challenges himself in all aspects of his life. The remainder of the book is of him seeking new experiences, opening to new people, seeing even his siblings as people he can understand having affection for.
There’s a great deal of detail about his abilities, and most of it is intriguing. Listening to him offering to break the record for a recitation of over 22,000 digits of pi in an effort to raise money for a cause is stellar; helping to develop a course to teach people the easy way to learn any language is likewise. However, when he goes into astounding depth about the construction of languages… snoooooze…! Somebody, a kind editor, shoulda told him: YOU may find that compelling as all get-out, but I assure you, not many other people will; kinda walk him back from that particular cliff, ya know?
No matter how unemotional and unsentimental he is, tho’? Simon Vance!!! What better narrator is there for adding warmth and humor to ANY text there is? He brings such sensitivity and such drama to whatever he narrates, and here in Born on a Blue Day, we get Daniel’s longings even more than we get his detachment; we get his nervousness, his fears when he deliberately upsets his own routines and challenges himself. Bravo, Mr. Vance (And how many times have I said JUST those very words about the man?!?)!
I liked this audiobook well-enough, but it wasn’t until after I listened to the rather heartless The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat that I really understood the nuances of Daniel’s experiences—of being different, of being flawed, of being an object of scientific interest to those who care as well as to those who are so very clinical.
And I can say without a doubt: Mr. Sacks, sir? He may be different, but he has a soul, and he does indeed have a heart…
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