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

After long time I read a book from start to finish Thx

This remarkable novel starts with the murder of an older dog and ends with the naming of a puppy. In between it achieves a lot with extremely simple means. On the surface it poses as the coming-of-age story of the autistic teenager, Christopher. In the wake of a long and distinguished tradition, coming-of-age novels are encumbered by a time-honored set of conventions, which are rigidly observed here, with the marvelous effect of complementing the rigidity of the autistic boy's behavior. As a "red herring", to use Christopher's terminology, the novel starts as a mystery story, but this pretense is dropped midway when the mystery is solved by a confession, in precisely the way the many "clues" dropped along the way led the reader to believe it would be solved. But by then deep issues of style and substance have been raised and cast in an entirely novel light. We are told that an autistic child is incapable of telling anything but the truth, even if not always the whole truth. Given that the story is told in the first person by Christopher, this has remarkable stylistic repercussions: the author is bound to foreswear the use of metaphor, though not of simile. This leads to an occasionally hilarious exploration of a literature without metaphors. Under this constraint, descriptions turn quantitative. A meadow is described by listing the numbers of cows with different hide markings, and in the interest of "truthful disclosure" we are told that the boy is observing the meadow while "weeing" during a car trip. You say "aha now I know how literature that is close to the truth, and as such much more reliable, would look like." Add to this that an autistic child is incapable of understanding human emotions, another crucial ingredient of a good novel, and you are led to say "now I know what literature devoid of any understanding of emotions would look like." And then, when you are through with this novel, you suddenly realize that all its unassailable component truths add up to one big lie. For why should a human being haunted by fears and suffering, as overwhelming as those experienced by Christopher, care about understanding the emotions of those around him? Anyway why should these creatures, subject to the whole usual gamut of human emotions, from love to jealousy, from hatred to revenge, serve as a worthwhile example to him? His pain is much deeper than theirs and in final analysis what he experiences as physical pain of all kinds (in his chest, his head, wherever) is really a gamut of emotions compared to which all the petty emotions of those around him pale. So, accepting the basic premise of this book --- that Christopher understands nothing about human emotions --- is the biggest lie of all and we are back on the territory of novels in which bored capricious women, be it in a French small town or in Russian high society, are driven to adultery, and when despair sets in, to suicide. Cristopher's despair dwarfs that of Mmes. Karenina and Bovary, but he at least has figured out how to groan or take the cubes of integers and thereby to cope and survive. Even what might be thought of at first as a weakness of this book, in the end turns out to be one of its strengths. I have in mind the rigid matter-of-fact style appropriate to Christopher's narration, which starts wearing on the reader after a while. My reaction was one of impatience, of I have seen that, can't you do something else. But then, this going on the reader's nerves is marvelously tailored to make him understand through first hand experience what living with an autistic child feels like, even if only for the short time it takes to read this novel. Rather than simply assuring us that Christopher is intelligent and scientifically talented, the author has him elegantly rendering some beautiful and well-known ideas of mathematics and physics. It is clear that this boy is headed for a life in the sciences, but will his autism stand in the way of his doing original work? Creative work, as has been realized over the years, has an important emotive component. Will Christopher be able to come up with what it takes at the emotional level? To judge by what we know about him from this story, he does have all it takes, and if there is a danger it is that he even has too much of it. Besides being a future scientist, Christopher is known to us as a writer who has us rethinking the description and understanding of emotions in literature and the meaning of truth, or at least of truth as reflected in a work of art.

dili b1-b2 seviyesinde akıcı bi okuma sağlanıyor çok güzel bir kitap

I really enjoyed reading this book. The storyline is unique, engaging, and keeps you curious from beginning to end. It was definitely worth the money. The book quality is also decent. The pages, print, and binding are good for the price, making it a great value overall. If you’re looking for an interesting and easy-to-read novel, I highly recommend it. Totally worth buying!

A mi hijo de 12 años le gustó mucho, lo atrapo en la historia y me dice que quiere otro libro del mismo autor

This is one of the most unique books I have ever read. Seeing the world through Christopher’s eyes is both fascinating and deeply moving. Mark Haddon does a masterful job of depicting a neurodivergent perspective without ever making it feel like a caricature. It’s a mystery, a family drama, and a coming-of-age story all rolled into one. I couldn't put it down, and the ending stayed with me for a long time. A modern masterpiece!