The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Other elements: Pets, parenting a special needs child, math.
Read it: If you’re interested in psychology, if you appreciate excellent first-person perspective.
Overall rating: 7.5/10

I started reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time once before and either it didn’t grab me or I had to return it to whoever I’d borrowed it from (I don’t remember). This time, however, I was able to read it all the way through and I was glad.

This novel is written from the first person point of view of Christopher, a 15-year-old boy who tells us he has “Behavioral Problems.” It sounds to me like he has Autism or Asperger’s, but the book never mentions a diagnosis. I don’t know much about Autism or Autism-spectrum disorders, but Christopher was an interesting character. I think Haddon’s approach of writing the book from Christopher’s perspective was what made this book remarkable. Christopher’s way of looking at the world is fascinating.

Christopher was prone to going off on long mathematical tangents, which bored me. They made sense for the character, but I really hate math. I skimmed these parts.

One of the more interesting characters in the book was Christopher’s father. I really liked how I, as the reader, witnessed the same moments with the father as Christopher did, but I could read them differently.

Not all of the peripheral characters – like Christopher’s mother or the neighbors – were anything special, but it didn’t keep me from enjoying the book. I’d call it solidly good. If it sounds interesting to you, it’s probably worth your time to read it.