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Bespectacled with a body so thin A face that hides a sardonic grin!!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

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

I have been reading couple of books recently, thanks to the book club that I am a part of! The one book that really caught my attention is “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by “Mark Haddon”.



The story revolves around an autistic boy, Christopher who decides to investigate the death of the dog in his neighborhood and in this process unravels a lot about himself and his family. Though he is quite detached and doesn’t understand human emotions, he is a genius when it comes to Mathematics. He tries to handle the situations quite logically and programmatically.

The chapter numbers in this book are prime numbers, unique concept to illustrate the mathematical inclination of the main character. The book also brings out the reasoning power and inquisitiveness in a child marvelously. The author’s deep insight of autism is clearly visible for the entire book is written in first person.

Some of the quotes that was quite impressive

I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.

Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.

I think people believe in heaven because they don't like the idea of dying, because they want to carry on living and they don't like the idea that other people will move into their house and put their things into the rubbish.

A quite delightful read and must say, it revived and relived the moments of child within me!

6 comments:

rekha said...

hi
i read this book too on recommendation of one of the book club members. and for me this was one never before read.

the book still dwells in my mind.

rekha

whoami said...

@rekha
I completely agree with you.

വാല്‍നക്ഷത്രം said...

'Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away.'

Thats nicely put. Let me search the bookstore :)

SRISHA said...

Hmmm.. looks like post-MNIK, autistic people are in demand :)

whoami said...

@വാല്‍നക്ഷത്രം
The PDF is available. Try downloading it!

@Potter
Thanks to this book, I was able to understand MNIK better!

വാല്‍നക്ഷത്രം said...

But I hate e-books..:)