Book 24

"The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time" by Mark Haddon

Continuing my trend for quirky, enjoyable novels, this is the story of Christopher. He's 15 and has Asperger's Syndrome. One night he finds that the dog across the road has been killed and he decides he will find out who killed it. The whole story is told in Chris's voice, and so the writing style is a little strange. Readable, brilliantly constructed and engaging, but more than a little strange. We get some incites into Chris's mind (he doesn't like yellow and he can hit very hard) and into the attitudes of those around him. We see, for instance, that Siobhan (Chris's teacher at the special school) is a wonderful person who seems very good at her job. We see that Chris's mother has a very short fuse, but that she genuinely loves her son and that four yellow cars in a row mean that is it a Black Day and Chris doesn't like those.

This novel won the Whitbread award and it's easy to see why. This is an amazing novel, one that I read in as few settings as possible and that almost made me miss a cue or two during the run of Tap Dogs. Chris's outlook on life is clear and untainted and refreshing. While it purports to be aimed at the younger readers, I'm sure that anyone who enjoys fine writing will love this book. I know I did.

Four and a half pink wafer biscuits.