Publish Date: 7/31/03
Meeting Host: Louise
Meeting Date: 1/24/09
Amazon.com Summary:
Mark Haddon's bitterly funny debut novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is a murder mystery of sorts--one told by an autistic version of Adrian Mole. Fifteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone is mathematically gifted and socially hopeless, raised in a working-class home by parents who can barely cope with their child's quirks. He takes everything that he sees (or is told) at face value, and is unable to sort out the strange behavior of his elders and peers.
Late one night, Christopher comes across his neighbor's poodle, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork. Wellington's owner finds him cradling her dead dog in his arms, and has him arrested. After spending a night in jail, Christopher resolves--against the objection of his father and neighbors--to discover just who has murdered Wellington. He is encouraged by Siobhan, a social worker at his school, to write a book about his investigations, and the result--quirkily illustrated, with each chapter given its own prime number--is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Haddon's novel is a startling performance. This is the sort of book that could turn condescending, or exploitative, or overly sentimental, or grossly tasteless very easily, but Haddon navigates those dangers with a sureness of touch that is extremely rare among first-time novelists. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is original, clever, and genuinely moving: this one is a must-read. --Jack Illingworth, Amazon.ca
I hosted the discussion for our group in January and chose this book as the month's selection. Author Mark Haddon worked with autistic children and wrote this novel about Christopher, an autistic child who sets out to solve a mystery involving a dog. I fell in love with Christopher but also found how exasperating it can sometimes be for adults to deal with children such as he. His story captured my heart, but not everyone in our group was as complimentary about the novel. The wonderful thing about a book club is that it stretches each member to extend beyond his reading comfort zone, and it's okay not to like every selection!
ReplyDeleteThis is not a book I probably would have picked up on my own, but like Louise said, that's the great thing about a book club--you're able to have experiences you never would've had otherwise. It was very interesting to peek inside the mind of an autistic person and into the lives of his family. It was very well written and enjoyable to read.
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ReplyDeleteThe cover of this book caught my eye several times while book browsing. I did not pick it up until Louise chose it for our club. Though not a "fun read", I did enjoy the book and found myself marveling at how much Christopher and I had in common.
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