3. The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

First of all, one of my biggest complaints of popular author Nicholas Sparks is his use of short sentences. I HATED The Notebook. What should have been a beautiful story was ruined for me like by passages like "He went to the stove. He dropped the lobster in the pot." (Those may or may not be actual sentences in the book, but you get the idea.) Since I first experienced Sparks' writings I've moved passed that objection. I understand it is simply his writing style and I really try not to let it bother me.

Secondly, if you've been around me long enough to get to know me you've probably figured out my thoughts are not always coherent or sequential. Sometimes my brain works faster than my mouth and I get really excited and a little bit flustered when I'm going on and on about something. I often compare myself to a raccoon. Place a shiny object in front of me and I lose my train of thought completely. It happens to me all the time. I also find it very difficult to sit through monotone speakers, boring lectures or read books in which the tone never changes (Read back to Review 2: The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter). This may be why I did not do well in Psychology in college. I loved the subject matter but it was all reading and talking and... boring! The only things I ever remembered were the very interesting things. For instance, one day my professor showed us a picture of Britney Spears. Then he showed us the same picture but her mouth had been turned upside down. You could still tell who she was. This had to do with brain recognition and how we don't use all points of an object to identify it. I've run on a tangent that really has nothing to do with anything... Squirrel!

(Sidenote, see UP if you haven't already.)

Back on subject: You may recall that I had trouble making it through my last book and I fought it page by page. Other than my psychology textbook I'm not sure I ever read that slowly in my life. The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon was a completely different story. Here it is, Sunday, and I'm 4 days ahead of my deadline. The book is finished and I have a satisfied feeling in the pit of my chest.

Earlier I mentioned that I have a certain loathing for short sentences that leaves me feeling anxious and annoyed. This book offered the same type literary style, but my reaction to it was completely different. The lead character of this book is Christopher, a young teenager, who has autism. Every thought, albeit short, was calculated and understandably so. He only likes prime numbers. He hates the color yellow. Math is the driving force in his life because it makes sense. Always. His thoughts may have seemed jumbled but once you understood his method of thinking- everything always had the same pattern, the same root.

I've worked with children with autism before on several occasions. This may have been the most interesting piece I've read on the subject because it was actually written from the child's point of view. His actions, his groaning, his fits were actually very reasonable in his mind. They made sense to him and they eased his suffering, even if the rest of the world didn't understand. I've often heard that autism is like being trapped in your own world and this offered a perspective into that world that I'd never thought of.

The random thoughts I have are just because I have a short attention span. I let myself get ahead of me and it gets me tongue-tied... but Christopher's random thoughts are not random at all. His routines are not set because he has discipline problems or his parents are strict- he has these routines because they help him cope. The noise is too loud, the touching bothers him and the amount of visual stimulation is too much for him to absorb. He knows whats going on but its like the circuit in his mind is on overload. It makes complete sense.

The storyline of this book follows a murder that Christopher must solve. What he discovers though is the reasons people do things are driven by feelings which he does not understand. He doesn't know what it means to think ahead or to feel remorse or wonder what if? His life is very matter of fact and void of all useless information. I think that is actually the point that made this book such a great and easy read- there was no useless information. There were no flowery descriptions or over the top tangents (see the first two paragraphs of this post!)

I think I found this book refreshing because everything I read is so bogged down in the information I think I need but is not necessary. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. A + B = C. I think we need all the other jumbled mess because it makes us feel better. It soothes our feelings to know how a character really felt deep down even if he was telling us otherwise. How many other characters have you experienced who's thoughts, actions and emotions were one in the same?

I'm not going to tell you how this story ends or any of the twists and turns because I want you to read it. I finished it in just a few hours so its certainly one that won't take you long and I really think you're going to enjoy it.

Thanks Katy, for letting me borrow this book! You were right- I loved it!

We'll see, later in the spring, how this compares to Jodi Picoults' House Rules. This book, also a murder mystery centered around a young boy with Asperger's Syndrome, will be published in March of this year. Jodi Picoult is my favorite author and you can bet that novel will definitely be on this list!

For the record, I got my comment section fixed so feel free to leave your thoughts! This means you, Scott. You said this is the review you were waiting for!

3/52 Books
938 Pages Read.