The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Ratings492
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings492
Average rating3.8
A bestselling modern classic—both poignant and funny—narrated by a fifteen year old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions. Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. At fifteen, Christopher’s carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbour’s dog Wellington impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing. Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer, and turns to his favourite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents’ marriage. As Christopher tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, the narrative draws readers into the workings of Christopher’s mind. And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon’s choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotions. The effect is dazzling, making for one of the freshest debut in years: a comedy, a tearjerker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.
Reviews with the most likes.
This book is about a special 15-year-old young man named Christopher Boone. He sees the world differently than others and has a preference for math, patterns and order. What is immediately striking is the writing style of this book, because it is written through his own eyes which makes it seem like you are actually reading a story written someone who is 15 years old. This is a plus for me at the beginning of the book, but after a while the simple writing style became annoying.
So Christopher Boone is a boy with autism. This means that he has difficulty imagining what other people feel or think or when they speak with sarcasm or use proverbs. Somehow it also seems that he misses a filter in his head because when it gets too noisy he feels like he is going crazy.
I found it interesting to follow him and his line of thought. However, the story in which he finds himself was not that fascinating. Because of this I found the beginning to be better than the end of the book.
If you are interested in the mindset of someone with autism then this would be a suitable book.
This story is well written from the perspective of a highly functioning autistic boy. However, people are so mean in the story that it made me sad.
Why would anyone write a book like this? It was a jumble of run-on sentences and stupid grammar. None of the characters were in any way people I gave a fuck about. I literally got multiple headaches from trying to finish reading it.
The story was boring the writing was like the opposite of immersive. I feel it literally made me think in jagged edges with a monotone voice in my fucking head. Even the letters from his mom were like that. Even though I normal adult person wrote them and should thus be able to write in a normal way. It broke my brain, no thank you.
Christopher Boone is 15 years old, a mathematical genius, and autistic. He can???'t tolerate the colours yellow and brown. He groans to calm himself down and does maths puzzles to relax. He doesn't understand emotions, cannot tolerate being touched and is unable to take too much new information in at a time.
His precisely planned world goes into turmoil when he discovers Wellington, the neighbour???'s poodle, dead with a garden fork through him. The neighbour in question catches him cradling the dog and had him arrested.
While in the slammer, Christopher resolved to discover who killed Wellington. His father and neighbours objected to this, but he gets encouragement from Siobhan, a social worker at his school, to write a book about his investigations.
What began as a murder mystery gradually turned into something bigger and more personal than he could imagine. A revelation sent him running off to London, which is nothing to most 15-year olds, but was terrifying for someone who can mentally cave in from information overload.
If it were any other teenager, this book would have been an angst fest. From an autistic savant's perspective, you'll be drawn to look at the world through his eyes.
Despite the fact that Christopher keeps insisting that this is not a going to be a funny book, his literal observations are often side-splitting.
I arrived at this book years late, but it is still worth it. Now here's an award winner I heartily approve of.
(2006)
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