The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time | Mark Haddon

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time | Mark Haddon | Touching...

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	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon Vintage, 2004 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 28 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Take a trip through a mind...

Right away you notice something different about the book. It is written from the point of view of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger's Syndrome, which is essentially a type of autism. He is amazingly brilliant with math, and likes everything in his life being orderly and as mathematically based as possible. He is constantly coming up with equations to help him understand the world around him. He cannot however understand emotions, does not like being touched, and has little (if any) intuition in many scenarios. (For example, when asked to guess what was in a candy tin, he said candy. It was opened and there was a pencil inside. The tin was then re-closed and he was asked "What would your mother walked in right now, what would she guess is inside the tin?" and he said a pencil.) The best way to describe him is being almost entirely left brained. All logic; no emotion. In a sense, he is entirely objective... no emotions to cloud the thought.

As I continued my journey, I got pulled out of my world and into his. If you've ever wanted to get inside someone's heads and know their thoughts, know how they perceive the world around them, what upsets them, how they react to things, how they deal with stress, how they feel about others... really get inside the brain... well, this book is for you! You are totally immersed in this brilliant child's mind. Suddenly you become fully aware of this entirely different way of viewing the world, a different way of processing information and facts. It seemed like I gained a whole new understanding of the world about me by reading the book. (A truly special journey for those who are very right-brained, especially!)

I get lost in thought sometimes, wondering about our brains and how so much is unused and how great it would be to utilize those portions... or I think how great it would be if my memory was able to remember everything... but then I think that would be too much, too difficult... there is perhaps a defense mechanism within most brains that allows us to only see what we need or want to see, so we don't become totally over stimulated and shut down.

Christopher, the autistic narrator, seems to have proved my theory correct. He sees and remembers everything. He can't just glance down a street and think, "here is a tree lined street with several three flats" he takes it all in. Every last detail is forever stored in his brain. How many trees, how tall, which kind, their exact location, what flowers are around them, how many cars, what colour they are, what stickers they have on them, the type, where street lights are placed, etc etc etc ad nausem. He won't forget any of it. He can say on which day at which time he was where, and what the exact looks of everything was. For this reason he has an immense distaste for new places. They are too overwhelming, his brain taking every detail in. Imagine trying to go to a mall when your brain is taking in every detail in camera-like precision. How many people there are, what they are wearing, where they are located, where they are moving, what they are doing, and the overall surroundings about you. As Christopher describes it, it is like the blue screen of death.

I would love to dissect every last bit of that book, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone who would want to read it. Definately worth the read!

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Touching...

The book is fascinating. it is very well written and researched. I learned so many things from reading it.

One of the best books I have ever read.

Christopher Boone is a boy aged 15, with Asbergers Syndrome. It explores an adventure involving him, which starts when he discovers his neighbour's dog dead, in her back garden. Over a length of time, this mystery gradually unfurls, until about half way through the book, after searching and trying to find the killer, the culprit finally admits to killing the dog.

But this turns out to be only a sideline to the plot, even though the book is called 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time'. Christopher ends up on a much more complicated, and somewhat sinister and confusing adventure, which really made me think.

This book is written in first person- (Chris Boone is narrating), and it is written in an amazingly real-to-life style of autism, which Cristopher Boone has. This is not insulting people with this condition- it is fully understanding them, and is written like this to give other people a taste of what it's like, I feel, and to be able to relate better to people like this.

My dad read this book after I read it, and he was amazed. It kept me gripped for hours on end.

I'd reccommend it for anyone of any age. Whoever you are, wherever you are, read it. It will keep you gripped- guaranteed.

This book really touched me when I read it.

This book could touch anyone.

It has been in the top ten selling British books for about a year.

Just get it.

Thank you.

Matt.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6

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