Rating: 
Summary: Hitting the mark
Review: I seem to have hit the mark recently for picking excellent books that deal with dysfunction, some sort of handicap, or bizarre coming of age stories. THE CURIOUS INCIDENT is one such book. The others were LITTLE CHILDREN (suburban dysfunction) and BARK OF THE DOGWOOD (family skeletons in the closet--and everywhere else). Of the three, INCIDENT was the most unusual.Christopher Boone is a fifteen-year-old autistic boy who discovers his neighbor's poodle impaled on a pitchfork. As if this isn't enough to keep you reading, the story is told through the eyes of the fifteen-year-old who is determined to figure out how the event happened. Enter the genius aspect of this novel: how the autistic mind works (or doesn't). We're shown the amazing labyrinth of the psyche that Christopher tangles with in order to piece together what happened, and the thought process is truly amazing. Again, I was reminded of a similar incident in McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD where the main character takes an aptitude test and fails miserable, at least in other's eyes. What an eye opener this Mark Haddon book is for this reason, for how many of us can even guess what goes on in the minds of those on the "other side?" And who is to say that "their" line of thinking is not the more correct one? Who is to say that their "logic" is illogical? Not me. If you've ever been on a jury you know how an attorney can twist things into an entirely different perspective and this is, in a sense, what happens, though Haddon is not intentionally manipulating us--he's just letting the story unfold via a very unseal mouthpiece that happens to see things in a different light. This is not a lengthy read, and you'll find yourself flipping the pages (not because it's a thriller) but because it's so well written and different. I've enjoyed all of the Today Show Book Club picks and this is by far, one of the best. Highly recommended for something completely different and well done.
Rating: 
Summary: The Perfect Book to Understand the Mind of an Autistic Child
Review: The Curios Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon, is a brilliantly written novel about a fifteen-year-old autistic boy named Christopher John Francis Boone, "who knows all the countries of the world and their capitals, and every prime number up to 7,057." Christopher lives in England with his father and pet rat Toby; sadly Christopher's mother died two years ago in the hospital due to an unexpected fatal heart attack. Christopher begins his story with a mysterious midnight murder of his neighbor's dog, named Wellington. But as Christopher begins his "detective work" of figuring out who murdered Wellington and their motive, hidden secrets and masked troubles about his family and of his past begin to unravel, all by accident and by a twist of fate. Prior to reading this book, I had limited knowledge on how autistic people thought and coped day-to-day in this world, but I truly think that this book helped me to compensate for that lack of knowledge with amazingly acute details of what supposedly goes on inside the head of a child with autism. I believe what sets this book apart from others, besides the amount of knowledge and understanding about autism that is obtained from reading this book, is how the information in it is presented. I strongly believe that this book would give someone an insight and help them learn about how autistic people behave and think, without struggling through the medical jargon in a medical or doctoral report about autism. I feel this way because this book is written through an autistic child's perspective; reading this book is just like looking through the kid's eyes and feeling and experiencing everything that he is. I think that that is much more valuable than a medical report stating the "progress" or "well-being" of someone with autism, and what made this book even better was that it was so enjoyable and fun to read that I had a hard time tearing myself from it! Overall, I totally enjoyed learning how people with autism get through each day and the differences and similarities they have with people who are not autistic. There was nothing I did not enjoy about this book; I thought it was fascinating all around. I would recommend this book to anyone because I think it would be extremely beneficial if more people were aware of how autism affects the people who have it and those people around them.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Wonderful
Review: I have never read a book like "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" before. It is serious, witty, entertaining, and all the while it is about everyday life. Mark Haddon does an excellent job bringing the characters to life, especially of the main character, Christopher. The book is written through the eyes and voice of Christopher, who happens to be a fifteen year-old boy with autism. Christopher's feelings and frustrations practically jump off the page. How amazing it is to read a book and feel as though you are inside a character's head! This is just an all around wonderful book. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Novel: Here's Why
Review: Christopher is a fifteen-year-old, mildly autistic boy who lives with his father in Swindon, a small town about a hundred miles outside London. His mother has passed away several years ago of cancer, so it's just Christopher and his father. During the days, Christopher attends a "special needs" school, where lessons include not only the three R's, but also tips on dealing with strangers and decoding facial expressions (Christopher can recognize happy and sad faces, but more complicated faces give him trouble). For a project, Christopher's teacher tells him to write a book about himself. Adding his own individual touches along the way (a math prodigy, the boy numbers his chapters not 1, 2, 3, but as prime numbers in ascending order), and peppering the text with illustrative tables and drawings, Christopher embarks on a detective story about Mrs. Shears's dog, stabbed to death in her yard with a garden fork. Christopher's purpose in writing his book is to emulate his hero, Sherlock Holmes (whose logical mind he greatly admires), and solve the case. But his investigations unearth more about the relationships between his family and his neighbors than about the identity of the dog's killer. Unable to decode sarcasm, jokes, or figures of speech (he calls them all "lies," since they aren't the truth), Christopher faithfully notes down his conversations and observations; though the reader, able to read between the lines, will guess the truth fairly quickly, Christopher's inability to understand social cues makes his struggle for answers all the more affecting. Constantly bewildered by the (to him) incomprehensible behavior of those around him, Christopher resembles nothing so much as a human plunked down on a distant planet, trying desperately to figure out how to interpret the language and behavior of an alien species. And, in a way, many of Christopher's conclusions and actions make logical sense; but because he lacks a normal person's ability to make intuitive connections or understand the unspoken, Christopher has to rely on the imperfect set of rules he's learned about human behavior. Which is not to say Christopher can't also be infuriating, with his startling rigidity and resistance to change; he's prone to loss of bladder control and groaning fits when confused or scared by his surroundings - which is rather often. Nevertheless, he's deeply sympathetic and intensely believable, even if (like me) you've never met an autistic person before. Other characters, such as Christopher's father and bereaved dog-owner Mrs. Shears, are realistically flawed and very convincing. They're not saints, by any means; Christopher's father tries hard to be patient, but can't control his frustration and anger, and all too often takes it out on his unresisting son. Mrs. Shears, for her part, is icily distant to Christopher. At first we assume that it's because of his insensitive poking into the death of her pet, but as the story progresses, we learn that her hostility stems from other, understandable (though not very noble) reasons. Obviously, Christopher's not responsible for his condition, and obviously he wouldn't have chosen to be as he is; but even though he can't help it, the boy is a heavy burden to those who must care for him, and frequent flare-ups of resentment and bitterness keep the story well away from saccharine TV-movie territory. Haddon is a subtle and sensitive writer, leaving it to us to draw the conclusions that Christopher can't. His precise and careful prose reveal just enough to keep us a step ahead of Christopher - and give us an ominous sense of dark revelations waiting in the wings - while retaining a suspenseful mood throughout the narrative. In the end, though, the only mystery here is one that's beyond Christopher's, or anyone's, power to solve: how people can be so brutal, violent, and cruel to each other in the name of love. Along with this great novel, I'd like to recommend another Amazon quick-pick curiosity -------------------------> The Losers Club by Richard Perez
Rating:
Summary: Shares a candid and favorable picture of an autistic mind
Review: The premise of "Curious Incident" seems almost impossible, but works in a straightforward yet engaging manner--much like those students of mine who are autistic. Christopher is a 15 year old young man living with his father, who has been under the assumption that his mother died of a heart attack. When he finds the neighbor lady's dog stabbed to death with a garden fork, he decides to do some "detection" to discover the dog's murderer and bring him to justice. In the process of doing so, Christopher uncovers some family truths and his well ordered life begins to unravel. Much has been learned in recent years about the way many people with autism process information and see the world, thanks to people like Temple Grandin and Donna Williams, who have broken through and written about their own experiences. Haddon's bio says that he worked with individuals with autism, and the development of Christopher reflects this personal background. Clearly, Christopher has had heavy doses of social stories and social skills sessions. He explains regularly that he does this "because this means..." He will launch into seemingly unrelated concepts and give detailed descriptions, explaining how his mind works. The story moves forward not in spite of these digressions, but because of them. Although Christopher might "obsess" about some minute detail, they often lead to his own discoveries that force him to make hard choices--such as stepping outside his highly predictable routine to find the train station and travel to London in search of his mother. The depictions of Christopher's many strange behaviors and coping skills rang true for me. I pictured similar behaviors by my own students, and this allowed me to appreciate the character development all the more. Clinical observations aside, it's a great story. In this day of novels about downtrodden protagonists defying the odds and coming into their own, Christopher's story, by virtue of his direct narration, is a refreshing change in the genre. Although he is a young man totally mystified by human emotions, as a reader, I found myself unable to put the book down until I knew how things would be resolved for Christopher and his family. For those of us who are lucky enough to have someone with autism sharing our life, much of the story will engage because it is so familiar. For those of us who have not had much experience with these special people, it is an engaging and insightful look into the workings of the mind. Most of all, it's a highly original and creative point of view for telling a story.
Rating:
Summary: Original and inspired - deservedly a Whitbread winner
Review: For sceptics who think this is a child's book, read it and then think again. "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time" is everything the media hype says it is....and more. It is an inspirational and original book about an incident - the murder of a neighbour's dog - that has taken hold of an autistic child's mind and in the process unsettled some dark family secrets which have remained deeply buried within the hearts of the adult community. The story is narrated by and told through the eyes of the child, so his perception and understanding of events as they unfold become our own. Mark Haddon's simulation of the autistic child's reality and sensibility is so touching, truthful and poignant I was completely blown away by its emotional resonance. The heartbreak one feels stems from the fact that the autistic child is incapable of interpreting simple messages in conversation. He responds to reality as he sees them, in the only way he knows how, and so misreads cues that should be straightforward to the non-autistic person. Don't let the dog incident distract you. It may be the triggering event that sends everything unrevelling but hardly the story's centre which is firmly rooted in the more complex world of adults. I wonder if Christopher would have been better off wired like the rest of us. I doubt so. There is also surprising depth to Haddon's characterisation. Christopher's father is a saint, his mother much less sympathetic and more difficult to judge, like the Meryl Streep character in Kramer vs Kramer. It's interesting that the book is marketed as both an adult's as well as a children's book. The adult and child reader will have different reactions to the book. Haddon has made an important contribution to contemporary literature. All we can do is read and be enriched by it.
Rating:
Summary: Curious and compelling
Review: There seems to be a great deal of books lately dealing with dogs or dog themes. "Dogs of Babel" comes to mind first. It's a very unusual tale (almost as unusual as this book) and a good read. Then I encountered "The Bark of the Dogwood" and, yes, it too has a dog theme. Now I find "The Curious Incident," which is probably the most unusual of all the books, dealing with not only the canine motif, but autism as well. While all three books dealing with man's best friend in some way or other are excellent, "Incident" is by far the best and most original. The other two are worth taking a look at, but whatever you do, read this one first. I'm not usually one for the Today Show Picks, but this one took the prize.
Rating:
Summary: Curiously tiring by the end
Review: I will say, to start with, that the story idea was amazing. I have never been led inside the mind of a person with autism and this book pulls you deep inside. The way that the main character works out the everyday interactions and reactions of himself and those around him is masterfully done. My problem really developed towards the end, when I became tired of Christopher and his introspections. So on one hand I really enjoyed the book, but, on the other it wore me out.
Rating:
Summary: Original and insightful
Review: Absolutely one of the most unusual and original novels ever to come out, "The Curious Incident" is an enlightening look at autism through the eyes of the main character. When a neighbor's poodle is discovered impaled on a pitchfork, it becomes fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone "job" to figure out what happened. The use of a child narrator voice, along with the handicap, reminded me of Jackson McCrae's "Bark of the Dogwood,"--another book dealing with gifted but handicapped children. And the simplicity of the tale was reminiscent of "Life of Pi." But that aside, it really has its own merits and is like nothing else that I know of. Very, very unusual and original. A highly recommended tale through the eyes of an autistic teenager, "The Curious Incident" will give you a glimpse into the "other side."
Rating:
Summary: Moving, amazingly written book.
Review: Basic Story:
An Autistic boy is alone on the street at night and finds his neighbors dog has been murdered. Who murdered the dog? Chris solves the mystery. Main Characters:
Christopher Boone, Autistic and different boy.
His Father, untruthful but for the best. This is a pretty adult book (but really, really, awesome!!!) I would reccomend it to mature readers who like a book with many twists. I warn that this book has more than slang in some parts.
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