The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Rating:
Summary: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Review: The most wonderful book i have read in years. Once i started i did not put the book down until i'd finished it.

Rating:
Summary: A Curiously Clever Book
Review: Mark Haddon has written a rather clever novel from the point of view of a 15-year old autistic child - Christopher Haddon. If we take as a given that this is an accurate portrayal of the way an autistic person's mind works, it explains and lends empathy to those with autism. We can see how Christopher's actions, to him, seem entirely logical and normal, whereas to those he interacts with they seem bizarre and abnormal (excepting his father and teachers).

The story unfolds as Christopher discovers the neighbor's dog, Wellington, murdered. A garden rake has impaled the poor creature and Christopher decides he will investigate the murder. His investigation is used as a tool to show his interactions with neighbors, strangers, his father, and his teacher, from his point of view as he keeps a journal of his activities. The cleverness of the novel is that it also allows us to see how others react to him, which is illuminating. We see Christopher from both points of view.

The story is also a tragedy in that as Christopher unravels his mystery - he discovers things about his family that bring the world crashing down on him. To avoid spoiling the story I will not go into details on this, other than say the novel also shows how difficult dealing with Christopher has been on those closest to him.

The one frightening thing about the novel is that Christopher is amoral - not in the sense of being evil - but he thinks in a very logical fashion and has no sense of right and wrong or the consequences of his actions. It's just the way he's wired, so to speak.

The novel, written in the form of journal, is also full of other tidbits about the way Christopher thinks. For example he's a genius in math and there are a number of mathematical puzzles sprinkled throughout.

Overall, this was very quick read and a very interesting piece of writing. A keeper, as they say. A book I would read more than once, but try it for yourself! Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- completely unrelated to Haddon, but very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez, an exceptional, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.


Rating:
Summary: What a waste of paper
Review: Crap. Crap. Megacrap. I can't believe so many people enjoyed this crappy book. Maybe I should have read it in third grade. I have never wasted more time on a stupider book in my life. Please don't buy this book.