Review - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

[jack]

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time[1]" by Mark Haddon

This is a great book. Read it now :) It's technically children's book, told from the point of a teenage boy with Asperger's[2] Syndrome. It's not very long, but gripping all the way through, partly because of the slightly simple style.

It does a wonderful job of making the problem seem PART of him, not just something tacked on, but all the same, a part he wished he didn't have. And he's intellegent and brave despite or with it, not a victim. One part that nearly made me cry is when he's explaining how he counts cars. If he sees four red cars on his way to school, it's a bad day, and he might not speak, and not eat lunch. It he sees four yellow, it's a good day. His teacher asks him why a rational boy like him does this, and he says that office works think it's a good day when the sun shines, even though they're inside. His way is less arbitrary than that. It's *understandable* yet also *tragic*.

The other thing is that a lot of the things he does I see in a less extreme form elsewhere. I have been slightly excessive. His habit of including all the associated information even if not really useful I thought was an endearing trait in, say, Cryptonomicon, but here you can see it taken more to an extreme, and how it must be awful *having* to do that. In fact, a lot of the traits geeks share, just nowhere near as much (eg. he repeatedly doubles in his head to calm donwn - who hasn't, if not as *far* as him :)).

And the plot isn't as simple as you might think from the first few pages, and Christopher succeeds in the end with and despite his problems. Has anyone else read it?

[1] Should "time" be capitalized?
[2] Though as someone on another message-board put it: "Couldn't they have found a name, for a disease that'll get kids teased a lot *anyway*, that doesn't look like it should be pronounced 'Ass-burger's'"

PS. Discworld fic should be finished any day now. Anyone have a good generic title involving the guards or death?

Comments

[mair_in_grenderich]

you know what? I read that book. Twice. I took it on the train when I went to edinburgh last, and I finished it by about newcastle so I ended up reading it again on the way back from edinburgh.

I didn't like it either time. Mostly because having the image of a dog with a fork stuck right through it squicked me right through the book.

I don't think I've doubled. I've done the two times / three times table when trying to keep walking at the end of a D of E expedition with very sore feet. I used to try and send myself to sleep with the seventeen times table. But not doubling.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Well, there is that. I tried to gloss over that and enjoy the rest.

Mgweep! I swore off all primes higher than 11, and have felt better ever since :)

[mair_in_grenderich]

the bit of it that stuck in my mind was the story about the smartie tube...

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. I am rather bad at seeing from other people's point of view, but not that bad :)

[edith-the-hutt.livejournal.com]

Graveyard Shift.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I love you. That's perfect. Thanks.

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

I thought it was good, though I did wonder about it being a children's book - what age exactly did they want? I tried doubling after reading Ender's Game but it never really worked for me - again, more likely to go with times tables or, my favourite, squares.

Mathmo geeks united!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

OK, I'm not sure it is a children's book as such. But it's (1) commonly called such (2) about a teenager who is in some ways less mature than normal for his age and (3) fairly short. So I just went with that description. I think most people I care about the reading habits of wouldn't discriminate based on that. I'm not sure what age I would give it to, though.

I used to do doubling. Now, I think it's much better to think *about* something -- so long as I've still got novels I haven't written I can't be bored due to nothing to do. When I'm stressed, just deep breathing seems better.

Besides, I sort of suck at mental arithmetic :)

[satanicsocks.livejournal.com]

I think it has two covers, one kiddie (ish) and one grownup. Like Harry Potter, but not. I want to read it, but I picked it up in Borders and didn't really like the beginning..

[theinquisitor.livejournal.com]

I wasn't all that taken with it. The writing style was both novel and interesting, but ultimately, it worsened the book for me. I'd probably have enjoyed it more as a short story.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I wonder if it says anything about the people who liked it. Or if it's just taste.

[mair_in_grenderich]

DEAD DOG. SQUICK. *shudder*.

Oh, have you seen this?

(Just reminded me of it)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. That is amusing. Except that when it was first told to me, they started with "This is a question about psychotics," so I just gave the obvious answer OF WHY THE PSYCHOTIC WOMAN would have killed her sister, and they interpreted this to mean that's what I'd do, and have been scared of me ever since. Mwahaha.

[mair_in_grenderich]

Well, the thing is, people I've talked to---that interpretation didn't *occur* to them, even as a really stupid idea... Maybe being told to think about psychotics helps?

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Good point. Everyone else I asked said that interpretation had occured to them, but they hadn't said it because it would have looked bad.

I think I am and have friends that are weird...

[atreic.livejournal.com]

It didn't cross my mind. Still, I was thinking in a "Jack and Jill" type way, and coming up with reasons like "because he was he sisters husband" etc

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

*thinks* Aha! I think my getting it might be related to having seen Four Weddings and a Funeral shortly before...

[mair_in_grenderich]

of course, that means you /can/ think like a psychotic person, when you try :-)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Does that make me empathic? Psychotic? Intellegent? Does it matter if I can, if I don't, or if I want to, if I can't, and is there a difference between being able to, wanting to, and doing? And do you promise not to tell my housemates this?

[mair_in_grenderich]

Somewhere I read that that test was used to find people who can think like psychotics, so that they could work for the FBI or somewhere as they would have a better idea of what people might be doing after killing people, or something.

And later some article in a paper saying had they had more people with twisted minds working there or for the CIA, they might have put the available evidence together and come up with Sept 11th *before* it happens.

So it matters if you want that kind of a job :-)

I think the victims(' families) would say there's a difference between doing and not doing :)

If I meet your housemates, I'll be sure to tell them.

Everyone else I asked said that interpretation had occured to them, but they hadn't said it because it would have looked bad.

Well, that's what I thought --- though not that it would look bad, just that it couldn't be the right answer. But I was told I'm odd to have /thought/ of it at all.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

My response to that post really shouldn't be "I like the (' constuctruction" but...

I thought they had realised Sept 11th was possible, but no-one did anything about it?

It's like those stories about hackers who get hired as gamekeepers.

Maybe I *should* be worried. Did some people really *not* see that answer at all?

[mair_in_grenderich]

So they *say*.

[mair_in_grenderich]

I should attempt to reply to posts all at once...

I read the front of the paper in the cl one friday recently in which it said the thing about psychos and sept 11, and I don't know the details. I'm sure there are whole books about it by now, though I can't remember seeing any.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Do you have it? Because now I want to read it... but am out of book buying cash.

[theinquisitor.livejournal.com]

No, it's my mum's copy.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

My mum's too funily enough. I might be able to borrow it... But you might as well go and read it in border's: it's pretty short :)

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I have it in Cam, if that helps.

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

I finished it last week. a) Not a kid's book and b) I recognised lots of habits like doubling.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I wasn't that taken with it. It had lots of good points, and was very readable, but it was such a stereotyped view of aspergers.... Having had a mother work with adults with autistic spectrum stuff for years, it seemed a bit over simplistic (in its charactorisation, not its style)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

OK, now that's a good point. I simply didn't know. It seemed to represent a *plausible* view: that is, show things that could be caused by a mental problem in a way that I could imagine someone dealing with them, and also fit my vague idea of the sort of problems people did have.

But if it wasn't accurate, I'm disappointed, but used to that sort of thing. I just always hope the next book will be better researched. What sort of things were wrong?

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying it's not accurate, it's just like...

... well, imagine if someone had written a book on a Trinity Mathmo, in which the main character was young when they went up to university, fairly antisocial, spent most of their lives in their room doing maths and playing computer games, thought a wild night out was the archimadeans talks and *insert lots more Trinity Maths stereotypes here*. It wouldn't be inaccurate - there are lots of Trinity (and Queens ;-) ) mathmos who fulfil all the stereotypes, and most of us suffer from at least some of them. It might even be a good thing if you knew nothing about mathmos to have a book that had a character like this in it. But if you are a mathmo you might be disappointed that this was the type of mathmo they chose to write about - not because it's *wrong*, exactly, just because there's more to it than that.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ah, good point. That does make sense. In fact, you get the same thing in many books, like the fantasy books where "clumsy apprentice" is not just one thing the hero is, but is thought of as defining him. Or romance, with "beautiful independant with submission fantasies".

I guess the defining thing would be if he has other characteristics than those attached to his condition. I *felt* he did, but find it hard to list them.