Early this afternoon, I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. While it was not at all what I expected, it was quite a fascinating book. Narrator-based novels have the potential to be the most interesting kind of character stories, and Mark Haddon delivers on that possibility with this unusual yet compelling book.
I enjoyed the mathematical, scientific, and factual asides. I don’t know how accurate a representation the book makes of Asperger’s Syndrome, but it struck me as credible and interesting during the course of reading it. The narrator is certainly an extremely sympathetic character.
I am glad I bought the book, because I will be able to lend it to other people. If Anna hasn’t read it yet, I will lend it to her when we meet next week. I need to learn her last name, so people won’t think I am referring to Anna Heimbichner from the program when I mention her.
Tonight, I am going to The Turf with a number of Edwina’s friends, to see her off before her departure. Later, Alex has arranged a dinner party with Byrony, Emily and her boyfriend, and some friends of his from Aberystwyth.
This book’s real achievement is to make Christopher more than the sum of his tics; a character, not just a dramatised condition.
Incidentally, the film rights have already been sold to Warner Brothers.
He was amazingly accurate. I say this with authority because my brother is autistic and goes to a special needs school with other autistic/Asperger’s children, plus one of my former students had Asperger’s. And the funny thing is, Mark Haddon had never met a person with Asperger’s before writing the book!