The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He can't stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.
This improbable story of Christopher's quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.
This is not a book I would have chosen for myself. When it was insanely popular during my first year working in the bookstore, I even looked at it, and decided it didn't interest me. But somehow or other, it ended up on my list, so I read it. And it wasn't bad. Another very quick read, but interesting. I don't know much about autism, and haven't had much experience with autistic people, but based on what I have seen/read, and the fact that Mark Haddon has had experience working with autistic people, it seemed like a reasonably accurate portrayal of what goes on in an autistic kid's head. Which was very interesting to read, because it was kind of like the way a very mature but still quite young child talks. Everything is very logical, but with no real understanding of most of what goes unsaid, or the ramifications of what's being thought/said. Everything is a simple statement of fact, with no hidden meanings, or subtle nuances. Which really is a very interesting way of thinking and of writing a book. So I thought it was pretty cool for that. One of the great things about its popularity, too, is that I hope it helped open people's eyes to the fact that autistic people don't think quite the same as non-autistic people do, but they're not stupid, either. They have real thoughts (that make a lot more sense than the rest of our thoughts sometimes, because they're less clouded with judgment), and real feelings (even if they don't quite know how to express them). They may need extra help to function in this crazy world, but they're not helpless, either. So I hope that kind of thing came from this book for people.
My main beef with this book, really, is this kid's parents. His mother took off, at least in part because she couldn't handle her autistic son, which is kind of lame, but I can see how it could be a lot to handle. However, she also felt the need, in one of the letters she wrote him after she left, to actually tell him this, and that's just so unnecessary. Even if the kid is, like, the only reason you left, the kid doesn't need to know that. And really, while I can see it being pretty sucky when you leave your family, and the remaining parent tells you you can't come back and see the kid, I would think you'd make more effort to sway the remaining parent than one phone call. But it seemed like the mom in this book just gave up at that point and resigned herself to writing letters. Which she did quite faithfully, but still never made any further efforts to actually see her son again. Which, again, pretty lame. To her credit, when Christopher showed up on her doorstep, she did immediately put him first, to the point of leaving her boyfriend and moving back to the town where Christopher was living, but still. Not exactly a stellar example of good parenting.
And then there's the father. Again, I can almost forgive him for some of his outbursts of temper, even the one where he and Christopher kind of got into it physically. An autistic son is a lot to handle, and I can see how it could get extremely frustrating, to the point where you snap and do things you shouldn't. It's bad, and he should for sure work on that, but I can see how it could happen. However. Telling your kid that his mother died because you couldn't handle telling him that she left is inexcusable. That's a terrible thing to do to a kid and to the woman you presumably used to (and maybe still do) love. Second black mark against him as a parent. But what really sealed the deal for me was his confession that he killed the dog, and the reason for it. There is no excuse, ever, to kill an animal because you're angry at a person. That, to me, is completely and utterly unforgivable. Someone who would stab a dog to death with a pitchfork simply because its owner turned him down should absolutely not be entrusted with the care of a child, especially one with special needs. As he'd already proved with his outbursts of temper toward his son as well. The fact that he could earn even a modicum of forgiveness by the end, and suffered no legal consequences for that action, kind of pisses me off, because as I said, for me, that is an absolute deal-breaker for any kind of personal relationship whatsoever.
Ultimately, being able to feel very little sympathy for the mother, and none whatsoever for the father kind of made the end of the book a little flat for me, because it's kind of about reunions, but I couldn't fathom reuniting with these people, and that made it hard to really get into things at the end. I was glad Christopher passed his math exam, though. That was pretty awesome, and another example of how autistic people can really be quite remarkable in some areas of life, which I really do find fascinating.
Next up: Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He can't stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.
This improbable story of Christopher's quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.
This is not a book I would have chosen for myself. When it was insanely popular during my first year working in the bookstore, I even looked at it, and decided it didn't interest me. But somehow or other, it ended up on my list, so I read it. And it wasn't bad. Another very quick read, but interesting. I don't know much about autism, and haven't had much experience with autistic people, but based on what I have seen/read, and the fact that Mark Haddon has had experience working with autistic people, it seemed like a reasonably accurate portrayal of what goes on in an autistic kid's head. Which was very interesting to read, because it was kind of like the way a very mature but still quite young child talks. Everything is very logical, but with no real understanding of most of what goes unsaid, or the ramifications of what's being thought/said. Everything is a simple statement of fact, with no hidden meanings, or subtle nuances. Which really is a very interesting way of thinking and of writing a book. So I thought it was pretty cool for that. One of the great things about its popularity, too, is that I hope it helped open people's eyes to the fact that autistic people don't think quite the same as non-autistic people do, but they're not stupid, either. They have real thoughts (that make a lot more sense than the rest of our thoughts sometimes, because they're less clouded with judgment), and real feelings (even if they don't quite know how to express them). They may need extra help to function in this crazy world, but they're not helpless, either. So I hope that kind of thing came from this book for people.
My main beef with this book, really, is this kid's parents. His mother took off, at least in part because she couldn't handle her autistic son, which is kind of lame, but I can see how it could be a lot to handle. However, she also felt the need, in one of the letters she wrote him after she left, to actually tell him this, and that's just so unnecessary. Even if the kid is, like, the only reason you left, the kid doesn't need to know that. And really, while I can see it being pretty sucky when you leave your family, and the remaining parent tells you you can't come back and see the kid, I would think you'd make more effort to sway the remaining parent than one phone call. But it seemed like the mom in this book just gave up at that point and resigned herself to writing letters. Which she did quite faithfully, but still never made any further efforts to actually see her son again. Which, again, pretty lame. To her credit, when Christopher showed up on her doorstep, she did immediately put him first, to the point of leaving her boyfriend and moving back to the town where Christopher was living, but still. Not exactly a stellar example of good parenting.
And then there's the father. Again, I can almost forgive him for some of his outbursts of temper, even the one where he and Christopher kind of got into it physically. An autistic son is a lot to handle, and I can see how it could get extremely frustrating, to the point where you snap and do things you shouldn't. It's bad, and he should for sure work on that, but I can see how it could happen. However. Telling your kid that his mother died because you couldn't handle telling him that she left is inexcusable. That's a terrible thing to do to a kid and to the woman you presumably used to (and maybe still do) love. Second black mark against him as a parent. But what really sealed the deal for me was his confession that he killed the dog, and the reason for it. There is no excuse, ever, to kill an animal because you're angry at a person. That, to me, is completely and utterly unforgivable. Someone who would stab a dog to death with a pitchfork simply because its owner turned him down should absolutely not be entrusted with the care of a child, especially one with special needs. As he'd already proved with his outbursts of temper toward his son as well. The fact that he could earn even a modicum of forgiveness by the end, and suffered no legal consequences for that action, kind of pisses me off, because as I said, for me, that is an absolute deal-breaker for any kind of personal relationship whatsoever.
Ultimately, being able to feel very little sympathy for the mother, and none whatsoever for the father kind of made the end of the book a little flat for me, because it's kind of about reunions, but I couldn't fathom reuniting with these people, and that made it hard to really get into things at the end. I was glad Christopher passed his math exam, though. That was pretty awesome, and another example of how autistic people can really be quite remarkable in some areas of life, which I really do find fascinating.
Next up: Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse