The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

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The narrator of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" came across as an insufferable prig to me. I felt he could have done with a good thrashing. The only thing I could identify with was his wish for all NTs to painlessly disappear.

I thought it was a pretty good book.

An interesting story and a pretty fast read, but I didn't relate to the main character at all. I don't see him as having AS.

I hated that book. I didn't identify with the character (and I am quite severely affected with AS), found the fact that he was a 'maths genius' unbearable (I wish they would stop saying we are all brilliant at maths!), the writing was poor, which is strange because people with ASD's don't necessarily have poor WRITING skills and the storyline was stupid. Just another 'steriotypical' autistic who has no emotions, no sense of humour and that amazing savant thing we all wish we had (secretly...). Sorry for moaning, I think I should be a book critic when I am older!

Sorry Jellybean, but I find your whole comment rather odd. I can understand that you didn't find the book to your taste. However, you seem to suggest that your dislike of it somehow invalidated the book itself.

It's now a while since I read it, but I saw emotions (of an AS sort) and humour (of an AS sort) in it.

It also caught me right out with both its maths appendices (which is severely embarrassing, as I am brilliant at maths).

When I read it, I did not see the central character as stereotypical, as I was only just learning about AS myself. I still don't view him as a stereotype, as I've now met quite a few people on the spectrum and know that that is the correct word for it: a spectrum.

My only criticism was that Christopher was plagued with somewhat more than his fair share of elements of the syndrome, and mostly the more intrusive ones.

As a parting thought, I wonder if we do not all possess at least one savant skill. It's one I haven't fully worked out myself... how to describe it, but I'll try. It is something to do with our knack of ignoring all extraneous things and seeing the true meaning. That sounds almost religious (which I am not, and it's not supposed to suggest) and pretentious (yep. That sounds more like me.).

I agree, it's such a gaping flaw, it spoilt the book for me.

I want it to be turned into a film/TV Film/TV Series. I'd happily up for the role of Chris.

The woman who ran a writer's workshop I was attending one time seemed to think it was a pretty good narrative. So did someone from the local bookshop -- they put it on their "recommended" list.

I shall reserve my judgement in that regard. I have read it, but if the main character is aspie, then... well.

I’m sorry but the boy spoke, that’s a pretty major indication that he had aspergers not autism, speech delays or not are the only reel difference, I identified with the boy in the book almost everything except the math’s, and I am anything but “stereotypical”

so u did not like the fact that they portrayed him with traits u don’t have, go Wright ur owne book then, and if u want to be a book critic I suggest u come up with something other than they fact that the caiture wasn’t enough like you. We don’t all have pore wrighting skills but some of us do
we aren’t all good at math’s but some of us are

he displayed emotions and humor, maybe u should reed it agen and this time get off ur high horse, first

I am not on a high horse. I can't afford one. I have read that book three times to try and understand what the fuss is about and I find it very rude that people on this site have seen fit to not allow me to present my view on this subject. I don't like it end of. I AM writing my own book soon because I think that other non-mathmatical Aspies need to be represented.

The first time I read I dislike it but the second time I read it made kind of sense to me that I was like Christopher in the book. It also brought awareness for Autism, Asperger's, and other Autism Spectrum Disorders if you think about hard enough.

That doesn't signify, really. There is no indication in the book of whether or not he had speech delay -- and he is fifteen, after all. I'm not saying one way or the other, but having speech does not rule out classic autism. Lots of autistic people who had delays when they were children now speak.

Yeah, I read this book awhile ago before I could relate it to myself in any way, but now that I know a lot more about the topic and the differences between Classic Autism and Aspergers-- I can't imagine he was "only" supposed to be an Aspie. I'm going to have to go dig out my copy, but I don't recollect them claiming him to be anything other than Autistic (as in, not Aspergers). I read the whole thing under the assumption that he was Autistic.

Alright, so I looked at my copy, and nowhere does it say that Chris is supposed to have Aspergers. Maybe it does somewhere in the book, but considering the narrative, that's not too likely. However, Wikipedia mentions this topic: Book Entry - Mark Haddon. Both pages mention it. Considering that Haddon worked with Autistic kids, I think he should have known the difference. Or perhaps it wasn't him that came up with the Aspergers label, since I'm not sure he actually mentioned that in the book. Either way, I definitely think the boy was much further up on the spectrum.

OK. Following the links, here and there, leads to:

Extracted from either of:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/childrenandteens/story/0,6000,1189538,00.html
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1189466,00.html
(They seems to get to the same interview text. I thought I'd give both links, as one or other may disappear, I guess.)

Maybe the crux of the "my copy doesn't say Asperger's" is down to the fact that it was published with two covers: one for the youth market and one for the adult market (apparently a choice of the publisher, which MH was surprised by, as he had intended it for an adult audience). I'm guessing, but is it that one cover does mention AS (the adult one?) and the other doesn't? That would explain all the arguments about this. The text of the book doesn't mention AS. One cover does, the other doesn't. Both groups are correct. It would depend on which version of the cover your copy had.

In any case, Mark Haddon says that Christopher is supposed to have AS, and he should know. If Christopher's (diagnosed?) AS isn't quite the AS that you want it to be, I guess you should look up "diversity". (I couldn't resist that sneaky, partisan jibe. )

Erm... I make this three covers?