Rating: 
Summary: Great literature, great read, great book dealing with autism
Review: I am the the mother of a boy very much like Christopher. Mr. Haddon has captured the essense of the autistic mind. I've read many books on autism but rarely would I recommend them to someone who was not involved, somehow, with autism. This book is a great read that anyone would enjoy. I was spellbound and read it cover to cover in a weekend. This is one of the best books I've ever read. It is absolutely fascinating.
Rating: 
Summary: How to think Autistically
Review: Mr Haddon does a wonderful job seeing through the eyes of an autistic youth. He captures both the frustrations of both the youth, and his parents. My son has Asperger's, and it can be refreshing at times, yet trying at others. I'm going to save it so he can read it when he gets older.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful and moving novel
Review: Some books you read and enjoy because they keep you entertained while you are reading them, but then you put them back on the shelf and essentially forget them. More rarely, you read a book that stays with you long after you have finished it. This book is one of those rare ones, and it is one of the best novels I have read in months or even years. If you are hesitating to buy it because you aren't interested in autism, I would encourage you to try it anyway. The narration by an autistic teenager does indeed give the book a unique perspective, but it is by no means only a "book about autism." Instead, the novel grapples with themes relevant to anybody's life, such as love, family duty, betrayal, and trust.Having said that, I will acknowledge that the author has accomplished a tremendous writing feat in adopting the perspective of a boy with autism, and I admire his writing style enormously. Somehow he is able to evoke strong emotional reactions in the reader while narrating events in a dispassionate, "just the facts" style devoid of any affect: Christopher writes of his mother's death in exactly the same tone as he does the death of a neighbor's dog. Yet somehow this style works--when Christopher notes that "there were tears running down Father's face," the reader knows that this calm observation has no emotional impact for Christopher, but the reader grasps the context and feels like crying, too. Another aspect of this novel I admired greatly is that Haddon does not romanticize or sugarcoat the world of special needs individuals. According to the biographical material, Haddon has been a teacher of students with developmental disorders, and his description of the abilities and traits of a teenager with autism ring true. Unlike most Hollywood portrayals of autism (think "Rainman," which was exceedingly unrealistic), the character of Christopher displays not only the unique gifts but also the tremendous parenting challenges associated with autism. He is a math whiz, but he also frequently wets himself, and when he is overwhelmed in public places, he groans or screams until taken away. While there is no tidy happy ending to this story --like any autistic person, Christopher will not experience a miraculous "cure"-- the reader nonetheless ends up with a sincere admiration for Chistopher's strength and courage, as well as that of Christopher's family.
Rating:
Summary: The best read this year!
Review: This book is moving, clever, funny, suspenseful and totally unpredictable. And whats best is that it acheives all of this in very surprising ways. I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: An enlightening book and a terrific debut novel
Review: This is a very unusual novel mostly because of the narrator's autism. Simple to read, the novel has an interesting rhythm to it as the reader becomes more familiar with Christopher's disability. While I initially thought it would become repetitive, the story takes some turns to make it a consistently enjoyable reading experience. Christopher begins to write the book to solve the mystery of the murder of Wellington, a neighbor's dog, like his hero Sherlock Holmes. Along the way, we learn about his family situation, his view of the world, his idiosyncrasies, and his school life. He's not exactly an unreliable narrator, but the author does an excellent job of imagining the problems involved when the storyteller has autism and the story is consistent with this perspective. While not a perfect book, I would recommend this highly, especially to people who want a fresh and different reading experience. It's not at all preachy, and it deals with a little understood disability with honesty; this reader came away from the book with a new understanding of the difficulties of dealing with autism. It is well worth your time to pick this one up.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding Kaczynski
Review: Mark Haddon combines keen observation of the autistic mind with empathy for the reader to bridge the abyss between the average Joe and his autistic neighbor. This book grabs the imagination long enough to explain autism to the disgusted and unsympathetic. Parents and caregivers of autistics will enjoy the surprisingly funny, bittersweet story before lending it out to their relatives and friends. Policymakers and citizens who want to steer autistic kids toward a useful life and away from writing Unabomber Manifestos and blowing people up should check out this book for its insights. Genuine autistic writings usually irritate without reaching their readers. Haddon has managed the autistic protaganist in first person without being untrue to his subject or unkind to his audience.
Rating:
Summary: I was bitten immediately
Review: It's been a long while since I got bitten by a book. My husband brought this home the other day, after reading a review, saying "think you might like this, the narrator is autistic". I work with young autistic children (aged 2-5). Aside from my clinical ability to absolutely understand Christopher, and see in him what many of the kids I work with may be like in 10-12 years, the stark beauty of the writing is absolutly gripping. I read this book in 1 day (in between seeing my "kids")
It paints (art class was often mentioned)a vivid portrait of an individual who inhabits my world, but is constantly bombarded with it sensorily, and develops his own unique coping skills- which are literally brilliant (mathamatically and scientifically).
The novel's strength is its ability to present to the reader commmon situations as looked at from a new and somewhat disconcerting perspective. And if words are not enough, the author gives the reader little illustrations to fully describe the sensory bombardment, or Christopher's translation of it.
The bottom line - its an extremely original and well told story with both humor and angst, and you can make it a light read or get deeper, as you wish.
Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent, Original Novel
Review: This is an amazing and highly original book. The story is told to us by a 15 year old autistic boy. The way he sees the world is wonderfully illustrated and forced me to wonder if 'normal' people really have a better grasp on reality. It is curious that the author uses an autistic, who doesn't usually understand emotions, to show us what it feels like to be autistic. This was an entertaining and thoughtful read that I enjoyed and plan on recommending.
Rating:
Summary: 3 yellow cars
Review: This novel brings the reader right into the world and thought process of the main character. It reads less like a detective novel (to which the reviews seem to have tied it down with) and more as a character analysis of autism. The pages fly by, not in an attempt to solve who-dunit, but to find out what will be said or done next. An entire universe of logic unfolds that the adult mind has trouble understanding, and yet Mark Haddon has used his years of experience to bring forward a very memorable literary character. I found the solution to the murder mystery slightly out of flow with the rest of the novel (as well as out of character) but it did not lessen my overall enjoyment.
Rating:
Summary: Curious Achievement
Review: It's hard to know where to begin the praise. Apparently Mark Haddon has written for children before and, in his youth, worked with the autistic. Whatever he gleaned from these experiences have been put to extraordinary use in the creation of his protagonist, Christopher Boone. Christopher is, for lack of a better word, a detective. Not your usual detective, but a teenager suffering from a neurological syndrome that makes him very good at math and science and rather confused by the rest of life. Therein lies the strength of the plot. The reader must stay awake. Everything is supplied via Christopher's eyes and it is up to the reader to choose when to share the character's focus and when to concentrate on what might seem peripheral. Ultimately, the plot becomes secondary. Not to say that the solving of the title's 'Curious Incident' and another twist or two aren't fun, it's just that Christopher's eyes prove overwhelmingly addictive. Haddon's created one of those rare characters that provoke sentiment without ever being sentimental, that you'd rather not see go.
|
