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

[oyceter]

I am quite possibly the last person on LJ to read this book. Alas.

As you know, Bob, this is about Christopher, who is autistic, and finds his neighbor's dog dead. He decides to solve the mystery, and in the process of doing so, digs up several skeletons in his family's closet.

I was a little scared picking this up, just because it had been recced so often, but the prose is eminently readable and the plot is extremely gripping. I can't say how accurately Haddon captures the autistic mind, given that I know very little about the subject, but it feels pretty believable to me. Also, I like how matter-of-fact Christopher is about some of the things of his existence, such as the badness of the color yellow or the need to groan in a corner now and again.

And now, to the bits that probably only I care about. I felt so bad for Christopher's pet rat Toby! Toby gets lost in an Underground station, and I was wincing the whole time. So, eh, yes, a warning to the few rat-lovers out there. I'm hoping that's not spoiling anything, since obviously it's not the point of the book.

What's very good about the book is that the mystery of the dog's death is actually resolved fairly quickly, but the repercussions of what Christopher discovers affect his family and his neighbors. It's also just heart-breaking seeing his memories of his probably depressed mother trying to deal with an autistic child and his father's efforts to keep the family together.

Haddon also has to show how Christopher affects everyone around him even as Christopher himself doesn't so much notice the emotional effects, and he does so very well. Anyhow, I liked this book a great deal, and it was especially interesting being able to be in Christopher's POV, even for a few hours.

Links:
- tenemet's review