The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

76%
12.05.03




I grabbed this as soon as it was publlished, its enticing premise - the story is narrated by a character with Asberger's Syndrome (no comparisons to my scoring system, please) - enough without the inevitable heavy marketing. Like its narrator, the story is clever and manipulative, its humour deadpan, its pathos soaking the pages. Entertaining and informative - and with an impressive amount of swearing for a book that's apparently supposed to be aimed at children.
[Editorial note: I'm surprised that I gave this book such a high mark when I read it because now I approach it rather warily. Perhaps that's due to its enormous success but I also feel rather uncomfortable about the narrative premise, and that the author claims not to have researched autism before writing the book, although I suppose that's not really relevant if the final result appears so accomplished. Still, I don't change grades once they are allocated so until I re-read it, this one will stay in the top rank.]