In the essay “Parallel Play” Tim Page tells the story of his life as an outsider. A boy growing up in the sixties who is unaware he has Asperger’s until he is an adult. Page paints a picture of a boy who has “such joys and pains” as a child. His parents, neighbors and some teachers describe him as a genius. Page questions, “A genius at what?” Did other geniuses have trouble knowing their right from left?
Page chooses to write the events in “Parallel Play” out of sequence. Page begins by expressing that his second-grade teacher did not like him. Then Page explains, “In the years since the phrase became a cliché, I have received any number of compliments for my supposed ability to “think outside the box.” Not knowing what it meant to “think