Curious incident of a dog in the night-time is an award winning debut novel by Mark Haddon. The story is told in the form of a book written by a fifteen year old special child, Christopher Boone (‘a mathematician with some behavioral difficulties’ in his own words) about the incidents following the murder of his neighbor’s pet dog. The boy shows autistic behavior though it is nowhere mentioned in the story. He has a unique talent with numbers, facts and figures, but has difficulty with fathoming emotions and normal social behavior.
Book starts when Christopher Boone finds his neighbor Mrs. Shears’ dog killed in her garden. He is arrested for hitting the police officer who tried to question him about it. Though he promises the cops and his father that he will forget the incident, he plans to investigate it. Christopher lives with his father and is told that his mother is dead two years back. He starts maintaining an investigative diary, which is actually the book that we are reading. His father is infuriated when he sees the book and confiscates it. While searching for the book in his father’s room he finds out some truths about his past and comes to know that he was kept in dark. He also suspects that all these are linked with the murder of the dog. This sets off a chain of events that causes much pain to all concerned with him.
Though the plot is predictable and a bit bland, the narration style is captivating. Christopher writes his story devoid of emotions in a matter- of- fact manner. But his inability to connect with other people’s mental situations touches a chord with readers. The book emphasize on this difficulty successfully. I would recommend this book for adults and readers in their late teens. There are certain parts were expletives are used. So reader discretion advised.
Other two books that I read recently but do not deserve a separate blog post are The Comedy Collection and Life Ever Laughter. The Comedy Collection is a collection of comic pieces compiled from different sources by acclaimed Academy award winning actor Peter Ustinov. The book is fine for light reading, but as I had read many of the better pieces in the book, I felt a bit bored by it. Life Ever laughter is an autobiographical book written by American comedian Jerry Clower. He Is a believing Christian who does standup comedy. The jokes in the book are pretty good and told cleverly and that’s it about this one.
Hmm... interesting.... well reviewed.
ReplyDeleteur right.. this was a book that was written in an entirely style than what is normal... but it worked out well..
ReplyDeletenice review boss:)
ReplyDeleteOH MY GOSH I'm was so excited to see that you'd reviewed The Curious Incident... I looved this book!! It's one of my favourite books ever BECAUSE of the extremely sweet narrator! I took this with me when I was on vacation and I'd keep coming back indoors just to read more of the book. I recently let my friend borrow my copy of The Curious Incident... but she seemed to find the plot a little slow-moving. But I didn't have any problems with the pace. Great review xD
ReplyDeleteI remember this book more clearly than others because it was the first one I reviewed on my blog! I loved the drawings and the all-too-literal way the boy understood things. The plot though, like you said, was predictable. Nice review!
ReplyDeleteThis was the book that broke the normal novel style, and wrote about that boy, so well.
ReplyDeleteLoved that book. Worth reading again.