Rating: 
Summary: Fiction?
Review: This was a wonderful book that I have been thinking about since I finished it last week. A 15 year old autistic writes a mystery novel telling of how he plays detective to solve a mystery of a neighbor's poodle that he found killed. I found it hard to beleive this was a fiction book. I felt like I was in the head of an autistic child and what it must feel like. The descriptions of "seeing everything" were wonderful. A unique book written a different perspective. Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, Great originality
Review: This is the debut novel of writer Mark Haddon who does a formidable job delivering a fresh and unique book. This is a choice book to read if you are tired of reading the same types of books. This may not be a great book but its definately a worthwhile read that everyone should check out(from the library).
Rating:
Summary: Original
Review: This is a wonderful and original mystery novel in which the protagonist is an autistic child albeit a "mild" case considering the continuim of the disease. Anyone interested in the working of the mind and, in particular, autism should read this novel. I recommend it highly and will be looking forward to the authors next offering.
Rating:
Summary: A great fiction!
Review: Need some insight on the autistic mind but want to read fiction vs. medical/psychological text? This is for you. It is a wonderful read with a great insiders view of an autistic boy grappling with some tough issues. Special thanks to Mark Haddon for writing this book!
Rating:
Summary: A Unique, Gripping and Educational Trip into a Tortured Mind
Review: Although it's not mentioned in the book our narrator and hero, Christopher Boone, has ausperger's syndrome - a form of autism. Remarkably Mark Haddon never did any real research into this condition; instead he took experiences of other kids he had worked with, and some of our more extreme personality traits, and used them to create a marvellous, whole, emotionally challenging boy. His starkness and simplicity strangely give the writing a warmth that could so easily be missing.This book is Christopher's account of his investigations into the mysterious and brutal death of his neighbor's dog. One of Christopher's favorite characters is Sherlock Holmes and he attempts to use his instincts to guide him - facing terrible fears such as talking to strangers along the way. Christopher's world is both simple and highly complex. He is a savant - extremely gifted numerically; he enjoys telling us of his math puzzles and other such ideas. Somehow Mark Haddon manages to introduce all of this without boring or alienating us. He employs Christopher's care-worker at school, Siobhan (for Americans like my wife who don't know how to pronounce that, it's kind of like shove-aun) as a pseudo-editor. 'Siobhan told me that would be boring and to put it in an appendix' kind of idea. Every now and then he says something that surprises us and then we learn that Siobhan told him to put it in. This is an extremely interesting a powerful device to employ - luckily Haddon uses it sparingly though. In Christopher's world there are some things he can never do. He cannot tell lies. He will not break promises. However, the total logic can sometimes give him an out. He knows about "white lies" which he terms not telling the full truth - e.g. when his dad tells him what he did he knows to tell him about math problems, not about his detecting. When his dad makes him promise to give up investigating the case he stores this as five distinct promises and when something comes up that we would immediately say is connected, he rationalizes as not one of those five things. At times during the book we feel an incredible empathy with Christopher. There are a number of these but I will relate one particularly poignant episode where he sits on a tube platform in total shock as swarms of people fill the platform, wait for a train, get on it and the cycle repeats. He cannot move, he cannot think, he just sits and sits until the cycle dies down as nighttime falls and he can finally summon the courage to move. Christopher "solves" the case, unexpectedly and also finds out that his Dad has been hiding important things from him. The book, rather like the famous film about autism "Rainman", comes a little full-circle at the end - Christopher has moved on, emotionally, but what sort of life will he end up leaving. We've moved on, too, and have experienced a wonderful, thought-provoking journey - one that will stay with me for a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Tremendous Insight -- Must Read
Review: What I loved about this book is the graceful way Haddon uses the literal mind of Christopher to develop our understanding of his life. No neurotypical person may ever fully grasp the working of the autistic mind. We must rely on them to tell us, and as we see with Christopher, the viewpoint is told in language quite different from the words we neurotypicals usually use for description. Many books written by parents or teachers of autistic people tell what they see in their neurotypical words. Christopher tells us from his words and his descriptions. Very clever. Does Haddon get all the details precisely right? Perhaps people with autism in a book group discussion might be able to tell us that. I must respectfully disagree with the parent of a child with Asperger Syndrome whose rating of this book gave it only a "1." I, too, have a child with Asperger Syndrome, and I found Haddon's novel to be an entertaining read, a fine story, and a rare peek inside the workings of my son's mind. Certainly Christopher isn't my child -- just as every literary hero or heroine is not an exact replica of a true life man or woman. I found surprising insight in how Christopher tells his story ... and it is insight into my own son and the other people I know who have autism. Christopher's eating preferences, literal thinking, sensory difficulties, and math facts as a calming technique seem quite accurate. As to the comment about savant capabilities. People with Asperger Syndrome must have a perseverating interest; it is part of the psychiatric diagnosis. In creating a character whose interest is math, Haddon hasn't done "rainman" sterotyping, nor is he creating a circus freak to entertain us. He's shown us into one character's world. This world fascinates those of us who are not quite so gifted. How many of us say, "I hate math," or "I don't do math?" Christopher, whose experience in the Tube station reads like a bad dream, effortlessly performs difficult "maths." His world is just opposite that of mine. Christopher's "maths" also represent hope. Math is what is good and constant and dependable to him. And, it is marketable! Dr. Temple Grandin, (a famous woman with autism) speaks about this at conferences. When an autistic person has a special interest, we are to nurture it ... it may be their career one day. As to the relationship of the parents. Anyone with a disabled or ill child will tell you that it takes a toll on your marriage. To ignor that is to hide your head in the sand. Do they all end chaotically? Certainly not. But, is that good drama? Would that draw us into a book? The parent's broken relationship and the raging affect to which Christopher is oblivious illustrate beautifully how little the autistic mind picks up on what neurotypicals take for granted. But, by doing his methodical detective work, Christopher nearly independently walks through the minefield his Mom and Dad have created. How very, very clever he is! I have a new insight into the fascinating way that my son's mind might work. This novel fits well into both my literature and my autism resource bookshelves. A must read for everyone, but especially for people who live and work with people who have autism.
Rating:
Summary: Moving and True to Life
Review: This is a very well written and deceptively simple book. The boy at the center of the novel has Asperger's syndrome and as I have a close relative with this I can certainly attest to the accuracy of the descriptions of this condition. However, this book transcends Asperger's and is ultimately a very moving and genuinely uplifting account of a boy's investigations into the death of a dog. I couldn't recommend it more highly. Plus if you happen to like mathematics, there aren't many novels with the Monty Hall problem in them!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent excellent excellent!
Review: Don't want to go into details and spoil the book for anyone who hasn't read it. All I can say is that I would recommend this book to anyone! I have worked with autistic children before and the voice of the narrator is right on. It's refreshing to get a look at the world through the eyes of a young autistic boy. You'll laugh out loud, and maybe shed a tear or two. I read this book in a day..couldn't put it down! If you're at all curious about the minds of those with autism, or if you just want a quick read that will make you feel something, pick up this book!
Rating:
Summary: Buy this book!
Review: A librarian, from Frostburg, MD: Perhaps the most amazing quality of fiction is its ability to put us into the heads of those who cannot - or never get a chance to - tell their own stories. THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIM is the story of an autistic teenager and his attempts to solve the mystery of a murdered neighborhood dog; but, of course, it's much more than that, too. 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 relevations 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. Also recommended: THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez
Rating: 
Summary: solid overall but disappoints, especially toward the end
Review: After reading so many superlatives about this novel, I have to admit to being disappointed once I finished it. It isn't a bad work at all, but I didn't find it to be the superior work of fiction I had been led to expect. Yes, he pulls off the voice of an autistic main character and remains pretty consistent in doing so, but since the voice itself is basically a reporter's voice, free of emotion and introspection and evaluation, I'm not quite sure why this is considered such a feat. And besides, I'd seen it done as well decades earlier in Flowers for Algernon. The plot is slim: the main character decides to investigate the death of the neighbor's dog and in so doing learns some shocking (to him, but not I would say to the reader) truths about his family and eventually takes an "epic" (again, more to him than the reader I would say) journey. As I mentioned, there isn't much to the plot that surprises, though it is mildly interesting and manages to keep the character before us in varying degrees of distress and tension. Unfortunately, those varying degrees include going over the top once or twice toward the end, where characters sacrifice real person behavior in service of plot movement. The main character himself is nicely fleshed out despite the lack of introspection and the objective voice; the author isn't afraid to have him be unlikable at times. The father is probably the other best realized character, though he fades out a bit just when I would have liked to have seen more of him. The mother I thought was too sketchily and easily drawn, and what should have been some complex changes in her character are skimmed over far too glibly. What works best is the contrast between that steady objective voice and the descriptions of what other characters are saying or doing. Since, however, the author sometimes plays this hand too much or too obviously, it's a good thing the book is as slim as it is. As it is, because so much of the weakness of the book lies in its last quarter or so, the overall reading experience is colored more negatively than the work probably deserves. If you can finish it in a sitting (pretty easy to do), it holds up better than if you spread it over a few days, since you'll find your last few nights' reading inferior writing in comparison to the first few.
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