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 enlarge | Author: Mark Haddon
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  442 reviews
Sales Rank: 602
Media: Paperback
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0099450259
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780099450252
ASIN: 0099450259
Publication Date: April 1, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Astounding February 27, 2008
Fantastically well written and easy to read.
A story of a young autistic boy, and his journey, told aptly through his eyes. A must read.
Funny and sad February 24, 2008
This is a lovely, warm, funny and sad story of an autistic boy and his struggles with the everyday tasks most of us take for granted. It also shows the difficulty of bringing up an autistic child and the colossal pressure that exerts on his parents and their relationship. Should be read by anyone seeking to understand the condition and how it affects the lives of those who have it and those around them.
One of my favourite books of all time. February 21, 2008
This is a most fascinating and simply wonderful book. The principle character, Christopher Boone, is a 15 year old boy with aspergers syndrom. His mind is like a well oiled logical precision machine ceaselessly processing, deducting and analysing. However, he has difficulty relating and connecting emotionally to others and dealing with societal norms.
I have always had a love for both logic and dogs so I had no problem empathising very closely with this very special character, even though I don't have aspergers syndrome (unless it's been undiagnosed!) and certainly have no penchant for rats!
Hadden employs a fictional autobiography technique in this book and so Christopher, is the narrator of his own story. This works well as it brings the reader right inside Christopher's world. We see it as he describes it - even the chapter numbering reflects his mind.
The premise for the plot is set when Christopher's neighbour's pet dog dies and he decides he has to investigate it. Along the way, he discovers the world around him was not always what he thought it was and that his parents and their relationship are not what he had understood. How Christopher's parents deal with their needs, their emotions and the truth is certainly different to Christopher's which helps to develope an interesting story.
The plot is succintly narrated with tacit logic, reflecting Christopher's mind. There are well timed moments of dramatic irony - where the reader understands something that the narrating Christopher does not.
Moments of humour, add some lighter moments. Christopher defines and derides societal norms such as small talk - which he describes as asking question when you are not interested in the answer!
There are also moments of wisdom. Christopher uses the Monty Hall problem to demostrates the folly of intuition. Sometimes an answer can seem intuitive but deductive logic will show the answer is in fact counter intuitive.
Although Christopher's world is a mixture of precocious genius, there is certainly a sense of forlorn helplesness and loneliness as he struggles with the world around him. While he is an inspiring character, one has sympathy for him. He doesn't seem to be the author of his problems, but his limitated emotional understanding mean that he cannot fully comprehend them.
My only criticism of this book would be some poetic license was obviously taken with aspergers syndrom. We certainly don't have an accurate psychiatric description, but what we do have is a magnificent character, a stupendous story and tones of inspirtation in a sea of imagination that doesn't even need an appreciation of sublime logic to enjoy.
One of my favourite books of all time.
 Good book February 19, 2008
I bought this book for two reasons; one, because of all the hype surrounding it and the amount of people who raved about it and two' because I have two autistic sons.
As soon as I started to read this book I did have a chuckle because it was just like my life and I didn't realise that anybody would know what my life with my boys is like! It made me feel normal!
I enjoyed seeing life from an autistic persons point of view and it was a great insight for me and I loved the print style of the book which was very condusive to reading. However, I found the story lolled around nicely but didn't quite grip me as I thought it would.
Maybe I am a casualty of advertising and promotion? If I had read the book because of its content (my second reason for reading it) then I may have not expected so much from it.
All things said though it is a good book and I have finished it and enjoyed it.
 Questionable believability but a great, interesting read February 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon, has been on my to read list for a good couple of years now, and i have now finally gotten round to it. and it is a seriously strange piece of fiction.
it amounts to a made-up narrator with Asperger's Syndrome taking on an investigation and running away from home. it is well written and believable - but in that is my problem. is it really believable? i dont know anyone personally with the condition and felt like it was maybe believable but who knows for sure. even those who know the condition couldn't actually emulate the inner working of someone else's mind. anyways - making up another's mind it part of fiction itself, but when the subject is not entirely fictitous it can be problematic.
another problem was i felt it was using disability to gain publicity, he's not making fun, but it feels like he is taking advantage.
this said i did enjoy the story, and its engaging and readable. its really not my type of book and this is part of why i cant give it a higher rating but my main gripes were with the questionable believability of the subject matter and the shameless face of exploitation i persieved
enjoyable, but marred.
7/10
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