That curious book about a boy

Long time, no seen. I've been busy reading "Wheel of time" and a whole heap of non-fiction usability books which I will not bore you with, yet.

I have read "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon. If you, for some reason, haven't read this book, then stop reading, get hold of the book NOW and come back and read this post. Having read the book, you are encouraged to continue.

This review is written straight after finishing the book. Before reading the book, I had not read any previews. Honestly, I knew NOTHING in advance. In addition, I have not read one single interpretation whatsoever! I'm clean and unsoiled.

I liked this curious book. It's refreshing in so many ways that I truly enjoyed those two days it actually took me to read it. I keep asking myself why I liked it, and, being inspired by the main protagonist and teller of the story, Christopher, I made a list of all the things I like about the book.

It's about a boy with behavioural problems
I have never read something of the like and maybe I never will again. Mark Haddon provides a unique insight into the world of autism and I got kind of carried away with all the problems this boy was facing. I started asking myself; how would I meet the challenge of parenting such a child?

The plot develops unexpectedly
After about 50-60 pages of the book, I thought I had nailed the plot and that nothing could surprise me. I was wrong. I never saw those letters from mum coming. I never saw that trip to London coming.

It made me appreciate everyday things
Like being able to use public transport. Like being able to not notice EVERYTHING new. Like being able to have a good day even though there are 4 yellow cars in a row.

It's easy to read
Yes, I enjoy having my English challenged, but sometimes it's just nice to read an easy-to-read book.

I could go on with this for a while, but I'm not going to. I'd rather talk some more about what the book did to me. Had I still been going to school and if we had had to read this book, I'm sure a lot of the questions on the test afterward would be about the development of the characters. Yes, that's probably (yawn) quite interesting, but I want to talk about my experience instead.

Remember that chapter about the game show and the three doors with goat or car behind them? That actually left the biggest impression. I hate mathematics normally, but this one got me carried away. Actually so carried away that I'm planning to discuss it with my engineering/mathematics/physics coworkers.

The trio of Christopher, his mother and this father is really worth talking about. I think Christopher must be a difficult child to handle.

Do I blame his mother for running away? Perhaps. That was the easy solution, but sometimes all your options are paths filled with grief. Who can handle the grief best?

Do I blame his father for hiding the truth about Christopher's mother? Perhaps. Why not just tell it? Well, if living with Christopher were to be easy, having the mother around in those trains of thoughts would not be easy.

Do I blame Christopher for not behaving better? Yes. He certainly proves he can, given the circumstances. Should we always feel sorry for him? He seems to be deeply aware of his own condition and it just annoys me at some points that he doesn't grab his chances. He's not all to blame, of course. It would be interesting to follow Christopher after this book. Would the London trip and his new dog help him get better?

I noticed one really unimportant thing reading the book. Christopher's mother has not the best sense of writing. A lot of words are misspelled in her letters. No wonder she keeps losing secretary jobs. Was there a point to this?

As a fan of science fiction litterature and movies, one observation in particular got to me; upon seeing how the ticket system at the Underground station worked, Christopher asked himself if we were in future now. I have asked myself that same question! When are we going to reach that fabled world called "the future"?

Christopher enjoys constants and his entire world depends on these. Am I his diametral opposite when I love change and hate maths and physics? No, because Christopher feels the same way I do about people gesturing and not saying what they truly mean.

Lying is a central point of the book. Christopher brags about never lying. He makes it seem so easy to always tell the truth and that normal people live in a complicated world. I started asking myself why we do this. I will not brag about always being honest, but I surely aim towards as much of that as possible. It's just that sometimes, we simply must surrender to the seductions of lies.

Oh, one last detail on lying: being a Norwegian, I could naught but notice how wrong Christopher was about Vikings living 2000 years ago(!). Why would Christopher (or the author?) get this wrong? Vikings lived between 800 and 1200 AD - which is at most 1200 years ago.

One last point; with all of my heart I agree with Christopher on the point with metaphors and similes. I hate metaphors because I immediately try to imagine what it would look like or feel like, whereas with similes this is much simpler. Go Christopher!