I have to admit, I stumbled across this selection while looking for good short books to read. With the deadline fast approaching, I can't get bogged down with too many 500+ page books. The first thing that caught me was the title. It sounded to me like a children's book. It turns out that Haddon has a well-established career writing for children, and this was his first effort at adult fiction. The second thing that grabbed me was that the narrator of the book suffered from autism. This definitely piqued my curiosity. Combine this with a deadline-friendly 226 pages, and I knew I had my next reading selection!
This book is quite unique in that it's narrated by a boy who appears to have some form of autism, perhaps Asperger's syndrome. His condition is never specifically mentioned, but he attends a special school, has trouble spotting emotion in facial expressions, exhibits rocking behavior, and becomes unnaturally preoccupied with things. He is also hyper-observant, which causes him great stress in new situations, because he has way too much input to process. This elicits seizure-like behavior in which his body and brain shut down. He is very good with mathematics though, and wants to sit for a math exam that will allow him to attend university, something nobody at his school has ever done.
His name is Christopher John Francis Boone, and he lives alone with his father, his mother having died of a heart attack some time before. The story opens with Christopher finding a dead dog with a large garden fork sticking out of it, lying in his neighbors yard sometime around midnight. Naturally he is the prime suspect, this strange boy who goes to the special school and who is found standing over the dog's dead body. He is innocent of course, so he decides then and there that he is going to find out who really killed the dog. After his initial efforts at investigation lead to trouble with the police, his father forbids him from continuing his inquiry. Christopher persists however, chronicling his efforts as a school project which ultimately turns into this book. His investigation leads him to uncover another mystery, one that involves him much more personally, and which leads him on a terrifying solo train journey from his home in Swindon to London.
I liked this book. Christopher's inability to read people's emotions combined with his unique way of processing information creates an interesting perspective on the most uninteresting things. Something as simple as getting on an escalator or riding a subway train becomes an adventure filled with wonder and terror. While the author makes no claims that this book is an accurate depiction of autism - in fact he has received some criticism that it is not - it does bring to light the challenges presented to parents of children with special needs, how each individual succeeds or fails at these challenges, and the strain this places on interpersonal relationships.
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