Christina Reviews *The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime*

           “This will not be a funny book.  I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them (Haddon, 8).”


          Every once in a while, I will come across a book that is told from a very interesting perspective.  The Lovely Bones was such a book.  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is another.

       The Curious Incident is about a 15 year old boy's amateurish investigation into the murder of a neighbor’s dog, but what makes this book interesting is that the boy is autistic (or maybe he has Asperger's), and so the book ends up being more about his day to day life and the things he thinks about on a regular basis.  It was a real risk that the author took, but I think that, for the most part, it paid off. 

      This is not a book that has much of a plot.  Most of the sections go off on tangents about random things that are happening in Christopher John Boone's life, and the second half of the book veers off into a completely different investigation altogether.  I didn't like the second half of the book as much as the first half.  And I think that’s because, as brilliant an idea as this was, it’s a concept that works in small doses but not as a novel-length book.  It starts to feel like a gimmick.  It’s kind of like turning a Jim Carrey skit into a feature length movie.  And this is because you need more than a clever idea to make a really great story. 

          But maybe I'm being a little harsh because, overall, I loved the quirkiness of the book and would recommend it.  I wouldn’t say that it makes one understand what it’s like to have Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome, but it certainly does make for a compelling read.  And despite the fact that the protagonist promises in the opening pages that it will not be a funny book, it actually is kind of humorous at times.  The story feels very authentic and true to life.  And life is sometimes funny.