The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Date Started: September 2,2009
Date Finished: September 2,2009

Summary: Christopher Boone is autistic and he witnesses a terrible crime. The dog next door named Wellington has been stabbed with a pitch fork. While he was trying to looking for the criminal, he comes across a startling secret. His father hid letters that his mother wrote to him every week and told him that she was dead. Christopher comes across the letters that his mother wrote to him and sets out on an adventure to find her.

Likes: I loved this book, even though it didn't feel like I was going insane and I had to resettle myself after it was finished. I think that was the point. That maybe how it feels for someone who is autistic. I haven't been around a lot of autistic teenagers, but I can imagine how frustrating it may be, trying to reach out to others but you can't. You realize that the world is more outside of your own sphere, and this world requires that you interact with people, even though you don't want to, or you can't because there is so much going on at once. The book itself was very well-written and it feels authentic (even though the Author himself doesn't seem to be autistic, he has worked with autistic people). Normally, I would be annoyed with the lack of description about characters, but in this case it works. The parents are at their wits end and the mother leaves because she can't handle it, even though she loves her son. It felt like a short read because there wasn't much in the way of outside situations like the details of the parents divorce and the wife's affair.

Dislikes: I just felt like I was going crazy by the end of it. It's a different thing working with people who have autism and then going inside the mind. It's rather overwhelming, which was the point. Maybe I shouldn't have read it after getting off of work.

Overall: I think this book has giving me a somewhat better understanding of what it's like to be autistic. It may not be completely accurate, but it gives me a new found respect for those with autism and their caretakers and loved ones.