Baby Got Books

The Extremely Curious and Close Incident of the Incredibly Loud Dog in the Night-time

Being behind the times like I am, I just read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. It was another book that I picked up while browsing in the bookstore with my son, and I didn’t know anything about it other than the praise on the cover. Clearly I must have missed Elvismith’s post earlier. A very quick and easy read, and I don’t have anything bad to say about it EXCEPT that you shouldn’t read this back-to-back with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I’ve reached my quota of precocious youngsters for this decade. Don’t get me wrong — this book’s main character, Christopher Boone, is very different from ELIC’s main character, Oskar Schell. He’s older, he’s autistic (which isn’t patently obvious until a little ways into the book), and he’s British, so lots of times I don’t know what in the hell he’s talking about (what exactly are “A Level Maths”, anyway?). But they both have savant qualities in some respects, and each story is a quasi-mystery that takes place following the main character’s loss of a parent.

The main difference in my mind between the books was my ability to identify with Oskar more than with Christopher. Sure, Oskar and I are very different, but I could relate to him to a much greater degree (because we’re both rational people) than Christopher Boone. That’s not to say that I couldn’t understand what Christopher was doing; rather, I just couldn’t put myself in his shoes as easily because he reacted to situations as an autistic child might. I don’t know what it feels like to cover my ears, groan, and cube the numbers 1 through 50 in my head in order to distract myself from an uncomfortable situation.

All in all, though, I think an enjoyable and easy read, and the story has at least one twist that was pretty clever.

Books, Fiction, News | Shaft | July 21, 2005 12:47 pm