The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is an interesting read.  I chose to read it because it is on the BBC list of books everyone should have read and most people probably haven't, so it meets a new year's resolution.  The narrator is Christopher, a fifteen year old with autism.  While up late in the night, he finds his across the street neighbor's dog stabbed to death with a pitchfork.  He decides to find out who did it, in true detective style, and to write a book about it.  Mark Haddon, the author, worked for many years with autistic people, and I found Christopher's voice very convincing.  I believed I was reading the words of an autistic boy.  

The story itself is both funny and sad.  My heart hurt for Christopher in many instances.  I appreciate a writer who can make me feel deeply for a character, and I think Haddon was very successful in making me what to more about Christopher and to want good things for him.  The novel is short (226 pages) and a quick read, but engaging and moving, too.  

A word of warning--there is a fair amount of profanity in the book.  That aside, the book is quite good.  And just as a bit of humor, one of the blurbs on the back of the book describes it as, "Moving. . . . Think of The Sound and the Fury crossed with The Catcher in the Rye and one of Oliver Sack's real-life stories."  I need to look up Oliver Sack (I don't know who he is), I haven't read Catcher in the Rye (that I remember), and I'm not reading The Sound and the Fury at Kent's "suggestion." but I think The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is both convincing and readable.