The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

From my 101 in 1001 list:

16. Read 30 books I haven’t read before and blog about them. (14/30)

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

This was a difficult book to get into; it wasn't until I read about 35-40 pages that the story drew me in.  At the point it drew me in, though, it had me completely.  I finished the rest of the book in a day and a half.

The book tells the story of a young man (high school age) who is trying to find out who killed his neighbor's dog.  What the book never states is that the boy is autistic (perhaps in the Asperger's range).  The narrative detail given to how he views everything that happens is really interesting and I can see why this book is used in classrooms (high school and college): it definitely would provide for some good conversation about reliable and unreliable narrators.

Once you get in to the story, the narration is really compelling and there are a good number of humorous and thought provoking instances.  It was particularly interesting to see how a young autistic person would attempt to navigate the world on their own terms and what kind of incidents would confuse or upset them.  I recently read that there is a film version of this in the works.  If done well, it could be quite compelling.

This is the sort of book I consider a good beach read (because I hate most books termed good beach reads).  It's plot-driven, unique, entertaining, and thought-provoking: everything I look for in a book.