On Thursday night, I finished "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time", by Mark Haddon. This was a really interesting novel -- it's written from the point of view of an autistic (?) teenager named Christopher who discovers his neighbor's dog has been killed. Christopher has read some of the Sherlock Holmes books and decides that it is time to do some Detecting to determine who the culprit is. It's very interesting to see how Christopher interacts with his world, and especially to see how his tics and odd behavior are perfectly normal to himself but terribly distressing to the rest of his world.
The author has an incredibly deft touch -- it would be easy to descend into pathos or caricature, but Haddon does a great job at making Christopher a sympathetic character without exploiting him. It's fascinating to see the people around him interact, filtered through his perspective. This is well worth a read.
I read this some time ago and am glad you refreshed my memory of it. I thought it was good and am glad you have enjoyed it as well!
ReplyDelete