The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

I remember when this book came out (back in 2003) because I heard it reviewed on NPR. It stuck in my memory then. I am glad to have now had a chance to read it.

According to one reviewer of the book on Amazon.com who is autistic, the author does a good job portraying life through the experience of an autistic person. However, wikipedia notes that some with Asperger's disagree with the depiction. Asperger's is a mild form of autism. Haddon once worked with autistic individuals, but claimed to have drawn most of the main character's quirks from "normal" people he knew.

I like books in which I can learn something while being entertained by the story. This was one of them, and on different levels. Big picture: a view into autism (Asperger's) . Zoom in: the protagonist Christopher, who is enthralled with maths and science (especially astronomy), is continually providing the reader with explanations of natural events and logic problems. Here is a simple example:

"I went out to the balcony to find out whether I could see any stars, but there weren't any because of all the clouds and what is called light pollution, which is light from streetlights and car headlights and floodlights and lights in buildings reflecting off tiny particles in the atmosphere and getting in the way of light from the stars."

They get much more complicated and in depth. I just had to accept some of the math problems on faith. (Ha!)

This debut novel by Mark Haddon was well done and I would be interested in finding out if his subsequent work A Spot of Bother is equally charming.

I recommend this book as an entertaining and quick read (I finished it in two sittings). Thanks for the inspiration, frylime!


Here is a link to sources of free/in the public domain books online:
http://www.booksforabuck.com/general/pubsources.html