With The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - A Book Review

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon tells the story of Christopher, a fifteen year old with Asperger's syndrome as he tries to solve the murder of his neighbor's dog. This book is truly unlike any other book I've read. It gives us a glimpse of the mentality of a person with personality detachment disorder and has to be one of my favorite books ever.

The beautiful thing about it is that it doesn't victimize the parents. It doesn't even make us feel bad for the kid. It just shows us that he is living his own little life. And not in a sappy way either. He's happy about the way he is, and he can't imagine living any other way.

I learned so much from Mark, and I fell in love with him with every paragraph I read. But perhaps the most inspiring thing about this story is the social element of it; Mark's fascinatingly unbiased view on how the rest of the world treats him. It is obvious that his parents, like many in their situation, are utterly untrained to deal with Mark and, as cliche as it sounds, they "just don't get him". But Mark doesn't see that, his innocence and naivete make him truly a remarkable character, one we can all learn from.

Truth is, we probably can never find out whether or not this is what actually goes through the mind of someone with Asperger's, but it sure is a good theory.

The book is incredibly short, and the language, as expected is extremely simple. so I recommend it to everyone. I don't see how anyone, avid reader or not, could ever regret reading it.