The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, by Mark Haddon
This book is brilliant in so many ways.
The main character, Christopher, has Asperger's and after finding his neighbours dog dead he sets out on a mission to discover who murdered Wellington, the dog. The story encompasses issues such as family conflict, as well as obviously mental illnesses, namely Autism.
The story is told from Christopher's perspective, allowing the reader to really experience how he thinks. For example, when he travels on a train, I really felt as if I understood why he was so anxious, but at the same time not fully getting it.
Asperger's is a type of autism, where the individual often struggles with social interaction and communication, but often has intense interests or talents, such as Christopher's amazing maths ability. It is caused by a lack of cognitive (brain) development, but usually improves into adulthood.
I really enjoyed that is was written from his point of view, as I said, and also the images and diagrams that were scattered throughout made it easy reading and separated the text out. I thought that even the small details like the chapters only being prime numbers and Christopher's little explanations that sort of diverted from the story but still allowed you to be with him, they added to the effect and show just how much thought was put into the book.
This book offers a subtle yet engaging insight into autism, whilst being entertaining and so cleverly written. Personally, although none of my close family or friends are autistic, I found this book so insightful and interesting, and was able to relate Christopher's behaviour to people I know with autism.
I would most definitely recommend this to others (I already have!), as I think it would suit so many different reading interests and what people look for and want to get out of a book.
There is a stage adaption that has recently been advertised unfortunately I have not seen it, but I would love to as it looks incredible...maybe soon!
Keep Smiling! :-)
