Title: The curious incident of the dog in the night-timeAuthor: Mark Haddon
Pages: 226
Genre: Fiction
Edition: Paperback
Accolade: 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year, Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book
Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old boy, is autistic. He is a keen observer, adept at solving math problems and knows every prime number up to 7057. He attends a school for children with special needs and his pet-rat 'Toby' keeps him company after school. He doesn't like being touched, dislikes meeting strangers (because of the 'stranger-danger' thing taught at school) and won't tell lies (except a 'White Lie'). He abhors anything that is Yellow / Brown, but loves 'Red' color. He won't eat two foods if they touch each other on the plate. His favorite dish 'Aloo Saag', which is yellow, is OK though, as long as its camouflaged with red-dye powder. Witnessing four yellow cars in a row makes it a 'Black Day' (Neither does he eat anything nor does he talk to anyone on a Black Day) and five red cars in a row makes in a 'Super Good Day'. Walking down streets or places crowded with people makes him jittery and he comforts himself by grouching and groaning or doing some mental calculus. He hardly ever ventures out and likes to shuts himself in his house and play on his computer.
One day Christopher walks into his neighbor Mrs.Shears house to find her dog 'Wellington' killed by a garden fork. Troubled by the event, he begins to investigate the murder. Christopher wants to solve the case just like the way he solves his math puzzles. But, his father Ed won't let him get any further. He confiscates the diary he was using to jot down his observations with the murder-mystery case and hides it somewhere. When Christopher searches around the house for his missing diary, he not only uncovers what he meant to find; but also something that he was unprepared for...
Written from the perspective of an autistic child, this touching novel offers a great insight into the world of autism - a place where normal human behavior and emotions have little meaning. Human brain is very complicated as such. And, that of an autistic child is even difficult to comprehend. But, Mark Haddon writes with such beauty and poignancy that I begin to wonder if anyone else could have said it better. With so many wonderful hand-drawn illustrations, this could be one of the rare novels you will ever find. I wonder how I missed such a gem of a novel. Probably, I must have been living in a cave or something ...
My Rating: 4.8/5
7 comments:
I read this book almost 2 years ago; and I vaguely remember the details now. But what really struck me then & what I remember now was the way the author has described the quirks of this kid. Little things like how he likes to arrange things in *order*, and how his mind cant comprehend certain emotions or humour. Beautifully portrayed.
Would love to read this boook..I have heard a lot of praise for this book.
I read this book recently myself. I found it rather sad, and kind of confusing. Fascinating to see how differently his though process was.
I loaned my copy of this book out to a friend and have yet to see it come back. I really liked the book when I read it. It was very insightful even if generalized.
Have you read Siobhan Dowd's novel, 'The London Eye Mystery' which is also about a child who has Aspergers but for slightly younger readers? In terms of literary merit it's not really as good, but definitely one to think about if you want to explain Aspergers to nine/ten/eleven year olds.
@radha ~ I agree! The way its written is what makes it very interesting!
@fighter jet ~ You should :)
@jeane ~ Its just a whole different world. Now, I think I understand much more about them than I did in the past.
@Wendy ~ It might be a good idea to keep 2 copies I guess :)
@tabletalk ~ Really? I've never read that one. You got me curious now...
I have a young neighbor friend who has Asperger Syndrome and exhibits many of the same types of symptoms. My wife and I did a lot of research so we could relate to him better. In some ways he is the most brillant little kid I've ever met. In other ways he seems about three.
Sounds like a very good book. I've added it to my April list.
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