From Goodreads:
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 cannot 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.
Pages: 226 (paperback)
Rating: 9 out of 10
I had this book on my night stand for a few months and read a few pages before I went to bed. Sometimes, I would even read a few pages before getting out of bed in the morning. The short chapters made this book easily digestible in small chunks. In spite of the short chapter and paragraph length, I had to re-read sections to make sure I understood. I loved Christopher's voice and perspective. Being able to have insight into an autistic teenager was a gift. One of the major themes of the book was being brave. Even though I finished reading the book over a month ago, I am still struck by the idea of overcoming fear in an effort to try to be happy or safe. Christopher had a lot of things with which he was coping; what started out as a simple quest to figure out how killed his neighbor's dog turned into something much grander.
Because of the book's location in my house, I wrote about reading the book for three Sunday Salons. In the first post, I discussed Christopher's power of observation. As I have been trying to get accustomed to a new place, I am trying to be more observant and hoping to transform that into some type of super power that will somehow make it easier to adjust to new surroundings. In my second post, I discussed my admiration and respect for Christopher's efforts to talk with strangers. I felt inspired to try to be more outgoing and speak to strangers. Meeting new people in a city where folks avoid eye contact is tough. I feel like I have to summon all my courage to smile and say good morning to people. In the book Christopher's bravery is what helps him solve mysteries and accomplish some of his goals. In my last post, I described a little bit about a relationship between transformed by the solving of a mystery. In his quest to discover the truth, Christopher learns some unsavory things about people who are important to him.
Even though it took me a long time to finish Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, I loved it!! My favorite part was the last sentence and without giving away too much, it reiterates how he was brave and why that means people will be proud of him. The only thing I had trouble with was the math formulas which were a bit distracting. I would certainly recommend this book to a friend or anyone that wants to get a deeper understanding of autistic teenage boys.
I am using this book to complete part of two challenges:
What's in a Name Two: It is fulfilling the time of day category
Orbis Terrarum: The author is British and lives in England.