Book Review #7

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

The originality of this book totally impressed me. I just picked it up on a whim at the library because it had the word "dog" in the title and was a novel. I didn't have any idea of the power behind it.

The narrator of the book is a 15 year-old autistic boy who is living with his father in England. In the first paragraph the boy finds his neighbor's poodle with a gardening fork sticking out of him and decides to find the murderer. His autistic mind does not allow him to understand metaphors but rather to only understand things literally. He is almost incapable of joking. Yet, he's totally endearing.

I love when he goes off in tangents about math or science. The boy is a genius and knows it but isn't snotty about it at all. He just wants to share the things he finds interesting whenever he gets a chance. And since he can't do metaphors, his technical writing in these situations is impeccable.

I absolutely loved this work and opted to read it at the lake instead of enjoy the boat ride because it was so engrossing. I wanted to jump into the novel and become the boy's protector.

Time to read cover to cover: 6 days
General consensus: A heart-wrenching work of genius (unlike A Hearthbreaking Work of Staggering Genius which was is more aptly named An Obnoxious Work of a Self-Proclaimed Genius).