Discuss The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

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Gynxie_Masters
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Re: Discuss The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Tim

Post by Gynxie_Masters »

I was really impressed with the aspect of the main character having autism. I find it incredible that an author could put themselves in Christopher's shoes long enough to create an entire book. Honestly, while everyone seems pretty happy with the length of the book, I wanted more!

I loved mainly just being in Chris's mind and seeing things through his eyes. I'm not a fan of spoilers, so in this review I will say that the author's explanation and descriptiveness of how he saw and related to things was amazing!
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cyndiha11
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Post by cyndiha11 »

I would have been able and willing to read much more of the book; I ate it up and loved the way it was narrated from Christopher's point of view!
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Post by ALynnPowers »

I thought this was a great book! I let one of my students borrow it though, and then she went away to Australia and forgot to give it back to me! ARG!
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Post by Anacoana »

I love seeing things in atypical ways, and since there aren't many books written from the view of someone with autism or Asperger's this was an excellent read. The plot was great too, and I honestly don't have a complaint about it. My ftm boyfriend has Autism Spectrum Disorder, and looking back there's several similarities which I think is really great. He loves this book too by the way, and reads it all the time because there's someone who sees things the way he does.
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Post by BookW00rm »

This is a book I recommend to people because it gives us a inside view of what an autistic individual might be experiencing. I study Cognition and reading this book made me understand my own subject more, especially the portion where the character describes how similar computers are to human mind. In school I'm made to take computer science and never understood how that helps me understand cognition. As I was reading this book it just clicked.

People need to be patient with the book and understand that we are trying to put ourselves in perspective of a child. I believe a lot of people got easily annoyed with this book because of the writing style (which I am assuming was author's intention). As long as you can get past that and envision yourself inside the character's mind you should be good.
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Post by mauriziopietrantuono »

That was lovely
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Post by MrsCatInTheHat »

I found this book to be difficult to read as a parent of a child with autism. So often, I found myself crying at the reactions other people had to the main character, Christopher. Why? Because other people react to my child in the same way and it's heartbreaking. Objectively, I found the story odd and the ending did not go with the flow of the book but it's possible that I was upset with other aspects to see how it was supposed to "work" in the end.
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Post by Samyann »

Not a very long audiobook at just over six hours of listening, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is written by Mark Haddon and narrated by Jeff Woodman. The story is written in first person, and the main protagonist is fifteen year old Asperger victim, Christopher. Asperger syndrome is a disorder on the spectrum of Autism. Christopher is perfectly functional, but has peccadilloes, i.e., he hates anything yellow or brown, food mustn’t touch other food on his plate. Christopher doesn’t like faces, doesn’t want to be touched, is almost savant at math and science, and is literal to the extreme. He’s a fan of Sherlock Holmes, but doesn’t like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – the title is a reference to a Doyle book. His emotions are stoic and his world is very black and white, right and wrong – nothing is gray.

Christopher is driven to solve a murder, the gruesome death of a neighbor’s poodle. He decides to write a book, the one we read. The story is a journey not only through murder mystery clues, but through Christopher’s thought process and logic. This is a realistic portrayal of an autistic mind, familial struggle, an understanding of the human condition.

Mark Haddon initially authored only children’s books, and in fact The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was released with two covers, one for children/teen readers, one for adult. A marketing ploy? The books are supposedly identical and both are available on Amazon. The marvel of this book, as opposed to other books about disabled people, is that there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of autism or autistic people in Haddon’s circle, at least none were found in my limited bit of research. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is all that much more of an amazing read given the character of Christopher is Mark Haddon’s imagination and research alone – very insightful.

The prose is lyrical, the story a slice of life from the viewpoint of a naive and vulnerable child stricken with a disability of which he is completely unaware.

Jeff Woodman’s interpretation is superb.

A thought provoking story well worth your time. Enjoy!
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Post by frowngoclownfish »

I read this book as a Sophomore in high school. I picked it because the cover and title were interesting.

The story turned out to be very interesting as well. The characters were great. Christopher was a character I really related to. I remember really enjoying this book and recommending it to all my friends. I would still recommend it to them, to anyone actually.
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Post by srividyag1 »

I read this book some 7 years ago and I remember finishing it in a day. I remember that it was humorous, as well as touching.
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Post by Scott »

I was just talking about this book last night. It's hard to believe it was the Book of the Month all the way back in January 2010, almost 10 years ago. I really enjoyed reading it back then, but I can now say it has stood the test of time for me. This is absolutely not a forgettable book!
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Post by Avonlea »

It was nearly 10 years ago when I originally read this book. It is was a very enjoyable read and is a very memorable book. I agree it has stood the test of time and I would highly recommend it to others to read.

I particularly enjoyed the chosen plot for this book. Basing the plot on a crime mystery was very clever. Solving a mystery is all about collecting important evidence and putting together the facts to find out “the truth” about a particular incident. Creating a mystery for Christopher to solve provided a perfect mechanism within which the author could encourage the reader to consider how we think about facts and what evidence we would collect in comparison to Christpher when we enter a new situation.

The plot allows the reader to analyse the details they notice and why they believe them to be important. It makes the reader think about how we interpret peoples’ behaviour and the clues we pick up in our surrounding world.

It is easy to assume that every individual, if placed in a similar situation, would agree upon what is the truth and what is not. Christopher’s story makes you realise it is not that simple. This novel makes you think about the truth in a different way. By fully exploring the possible upsetting and negative consequences of doing so, the book also makes you think carefully about when (if ever!!) it is appropriate to try and protect people from the truth by telling a “white lie”.

I have often thought about this book over the years. It has been adapted into a script for the stage and I have regularly seen theatre billboards advertising the play. I would love to have the opportunity to go and see it one day and see how they bring the story to life in the theatre. If anyone has seen the stage play I would love to hear what you thought of it.

Also, I recently watched a BBC TV series called “The A Word” and the Netflix series called “Atypical”. Both of these series centre around young male characters who are on the Autistic Spectrum. These stories explore all the ups and downs of life for these boys and their families. These series reminded me of Christopher, his family and the mystery he set out to solve in Haddon’s novel. Watching these modern series and reading recent reviews written about them made me realise how groundbreaking Haddon’s book was for its time.
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Post by Maddie Atkinson »

I have read this book and also been lucky enough to see it in the West End as well. I just love the way the book portrays a kid with (unstated) disabilities and the way in which it can be affected by family life. I like how Christopher focuses on something that is so close to his heart that he is set on figuring it out, and his skills in maths astound me, I can't understand those parts, my brain doesn't function in that way!
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Post by Abdulwahab Maryam »

I also am curious what an experts opinion would be on whether or not this is an accurate depiction of how an autistic mind works.
Thanks!
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