Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful effort
Review: Mr. Haddon has managed to entertain, educate and enthrall in one fell swoop. Much of the debate around autism has been about nature vs. nurture, fMRI scans are now being used to see how autistic people's brain "light up" differently than ours. Mark short cuts all of that science by wrapping his wisdom gleaned from years of observation in one of the most delightful characters I'm ever encountered. Christopher tugged at my heart from the beginning, even understanding that he would never see the reason behind my feelings. An important work for anyone, but especially for those who come into contact with autistic people and would like to have a perspective to try to understand the differences in our realities.
Rating: 
Summary: Now THAT's different
Review: With "Dog in the Night-Time," Haddon delivers an intriguing, and often hilarious, story with a biting wit and a truly unique approach. If you want to add something out-of-the-box to your summer reading list, "Curious Incident" is for you. If you dig this, and/or you're into writers like Yann Martel, Sue Monk Kidd, Dan Brown, etc., then there's a new writer you should check out: Greg Ippolito. His new novel, "Zero Station," is absolutely terrific, and an excerpt is available for FREE. He's still a relative unknown (a friend turned me onto his work)...but this is a must-read. You can check him out and read the excerpt at: www.ZERO-STATION.net. Don't miss it!
Rating: 
Summary: poorly executed literary exercise
Review: This may be the worst book I have read this year. It is not a fun read; the writing is blunt and dull and there is no interesting use of language and no plot to speak of. Oh, and the "mystery" is resolved in the middle of the book and followed by another 70 pages of exremely tedious explanation of a trip to London. "But that's not fair," you say, "the protagonist suffers from autism. Of course the book would be written in simple language!" Maybe this is an accurate portrayal of what would happen if an autistic person wrote a book. I would say that it is not; Haddon just takes every stereotypical trait of an autistic person and assigns them to the protagonist. If you want to read a crime/mystery novel written from the perspective of a person with a disability, read Jonathan Lethem's book "Motherless Brooklyn" (the protagonist has Tourette's syndrome). Lethem's book is a clever and witty book; in this book, the disability is a device designed to give the book some humor and color.
Rating: 
Summary: B O R I N G
Review: Had a difficult time getting through this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A curious read
Review: Mark Haddon's sometimes heartfelt first novel tells the story of a Christopher, an autistic 15-year old who embarks on a investigation to find out who killed his neighbor's dog. Along that journey, we get a glimpse in to the mind of a person with autism, his need for logic, his black and white understanding of the world, and the quiet exasperation that he evokes in his parents. There is an awful sense of humanity in this book, a dark suggestion of the daily struggle that Christopher's parents deal with while trying to raise a son that can't understand society's norms. It is this suggestion that touched me the most. At many moments, I felt for Christopher's parents, not for him. Mark Haddon has spent many years working with this kind of syndrome, and I do not doubt that he is intimately familiar with the constant battles that people with autism face. And he is successful at depicting these battles. But it is difficult for someone who has never known an autistic person personally to find the greater importance of this novel on a literary scale. I had it's title in my head for several weeks before buying it, and think that I should have just waited for a used paperback. It is a quick read, and certainly puts the reader in the mind of a young person with autism -- which is probably its greatest feat. But I think that the comparisons that I have read of this book to Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" are nothing more than publicist's speak.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Miss It!
Review: Not many people can quite understand what goes on in the minds of the mentally impaired, all that is seen and understood is the outward culmanation of their thought process. Yet Haddon succesfully manages to portray the mind of a (fictional) autistic boy beautifully, creating sympathy and emotion for a mind that knows neither. Christopher, the narrator, is a 15 year old boy, yet his writing seems simple and straight-forward, mirroring his thought-process. Although to others, an autistic mind may seem complex and non-comprehensible, Christopher's thoughts explain his actions in a simple manner, which he cannot convey to others in words. When Christopher discovers his neighbour's dog dead in her garden, he decides to embark upon an investigation to determine the murderer. To Christopher, dogs are just as important as people, and so the killer must be found. But his investigations take him much further than he expects, revealing truths about both of his parents, and turning the world-as-he-knows-it upside down, completely rearranging his life. However, Christopher's reaction to the events of the novel are not as the reader experiences them. When he discovers the truth about his Mother and Father, his physical anguish is clearly shown, yet his narrative technique does not show passionate emotions or distress. His mind and thoughts remain calm and passive. Through Christopher's eyes we see normal every-day events from a different perspective, and experience normally upsetting and traumatic events through an emotionally indifferent mind, creating even more empathy and sorrow than usual. The simple writing style of Christopher allows an easy reading of the novel, which has images and illustrations scattered throughout. However, Haddon allows the reader a fuller understand than Christopher's interpretation of events, by portraying full dialogues throughout the text that the reader can interpret differently to Christopher's unemotional grasp, giving the reader an upperhand of situations. This three-dimensional approach allows a contrast to Christopher's two, or one, dimensional interpretation, allowing an intimacy with Christopher's character that would not normally be permitted by an autistic person. Despite the novels slightly large appearance, it is a quick read, due to the simple writing-style, but time should be taken whilst reading it in order to appreciate it fully. The indifferent manner of Christopher compared to the emotionaly turbulent events that take place in the novel create a parallel that gives the reader full enjoyment of the novel, leaving a feeling of enlightment and deeper understand, and perhaps some guilt, for all autistic people. Rather than just understanding an autistic person from the actions they display, Haddon allows us to understand Christopher's actions and thoughts, which are wholly different, and in this way the reader can come to appreciate the intricacies and levels of an autistic mind, not just by face-value. Don't miss this great book! Another quick recommendation is The Losers Club by Richard Perez
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
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