Book Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time ****1/2

wow – this was an awesome book. It was easy to read, but at the same time it boggled my mind. I like books which follow the traditional structure of ‘once upon a time…, tells a tale…, has a mystery, etc, etc. but other times, I like books like this one where during the entire time i was reading the book, had me wondering how the author thought of the idea. The story is written from the point of view of a child born with autism who as part of a school project begins to write a book. The narrative is the story that we’re reading in real time where the boy tells his tale about finding a neighbour’s dog lying dead apparently killed with a garden fork. The incredible part is that you’re not told that the boy is autistic or what type of autism he has, but as the you read you can start to figure it out – imagine Rain Man. don’t know if you’d call it an uplifting story or a sad one – i guess it depends on your mood when you’re reading it. I thought it was pretty uplifting and definitely made me smile as he venturee out into London – half the feelings he had were what I felt when I first wandered around London! In my view, you gotta read this book!

btw – it turns out there are two versions, one a kids version and an adult version – i don’t know what the difference is (perhaps the swearing is edited? anyone know?), but i read the adult one which in the UK also has the more cartoon cover…

here are some other reviews of the book

http://www.funkypancake.com/blog/archives/2004/04/the_curious_inc.html
http://www.dejahthoris.net/blog/archives/2005/09/
the_curious_incident_of_the_dog_in_the_nighttime.html
http://www.track0.com/japh/archive/000546.html#000546