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Metally.net Book Store - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
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List Price: $19.99
Our Price: $13.07
Your Save: $ 6.92 ( 35% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Recorded Books
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio Cassette
EAN: 9781402555985
Format: Unabridged
ISBN: 1402555989
Label: Recorded Books
Manufacturer: Recorded Books
Number Of Items: 4
Publication Date: 2003-06-17
Publisher: Recorded Books
Studio: Recorded Books
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Curious Execution Within A Wonderful Story
Comment: With a unique style and fresh voice Mark Haddon has created a wonderfully memorable first novel. "The Curious Incident of The Dog In the Night-time" is told through the eyes of Christopher, a 15-year old autistic boy, and chronicles his search for the killer of his neighbor's dog. However, what starts as a mystery that Christopher compares to his favorite book "The Hound of The Baskervilles", turns into much more as he overcomes his fears and limitations to try and put order in a chaotic world.
By writing a story in the first person when that person is autistic and can't understand emotions or other peoples intentions would at first seem limiting, but Mark Haddon expertly creates such a fascinating voice in Christopher that you fall in love with him within the first few pages. Using a quirky style that includes maps, charts, smiley/frowning faces, text book descriptions of statistic theory and chapters that are prime numbers, Haddon keeps the reader drawn into Christopher's way of thinking and reminds us without being sentimental or condescending the difficulties Christopher has navigating through a normal day. "Prime numbers are what you have left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them".
Christopher needs order and clarity in his daily routines and without them has trouble functioning, which poses a problem when trying to solve a mystery. However, to Christopher no event is random, and if he can just get the facts then he can put the pieces together and create logic. It is during this pursuit of clarity that Christopher must confront his disorder and his own fears to get at the truth. He can't lie (because that creates infinite alternate possibilities), he does not understand metaphors (because one thing can not be another) although he does like similes, and he doesn't look into other people's faces (because he gets confused between expressions that can mean different things). It are all these issues due to his autism that makes his journey so heartwarming and painful at the same time.
The murder mystery is just a catalyst for a larger adventure that Christopher must undertake and his story is an entertaining, witty and insightful one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Ok in parts
Comment: I'm not much for rambling style of writing, so i started reading this book with a degree of skepticism. Despite my low expectations, the book was a let down. It was different and interesting in parts, but not great.
The story is about Christopher Boone, a 15-year old autistic boy, resolved to find the murderer of his neighbor's dog...or so i thought until the first chapter. That is where the author digresses. He rambles on about red cars and yellow cars and a ton of math and charts and diagrams that serve no purpose other than to get under my skin. After a few more entirely unnecessary chapters during which the dog's murder mystery is sidelined, Chirstopher discovers the truth about his mother. The book ends on yet another random note.
Christopher comes across as a smart kid and if the book is an accurate portrayal of how children with severe sensory disorders think, i will not shed copious tears over the $11.16 i spent on it. If not, i want my money back...hmmph.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Curious preaching from an otherwise interesting read
Comment: I enjoyed reading this novel. I found it engaging right from the start. It was interesting to see things from a different perspective. I got some insight, I think, into a very different way of looking at life. Christopher would, indeed, be a handful.
My problem with this book and why I would not give it a rave review is the atheism kind of tacked-on here and there. It feels false to the character. It feels like the authour saw an opportunity to preach his view of religion and was not faithful to the character in so doing. I found that disappointing and distracting. It is not integral to the story, though, so it's easy to overlook.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book, but arrived damaged
Comment: The book itself was very good and well written. However, my order arrived slightly damaged. Oh well.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellant Book
Comment: I found this book to be an extremely inteesting insight into this childs mind. It is well written, especially knowing that the author themselves is not autistic. He did a very good job writing this book from that perspective.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order and predictability shelter him from the messy, wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher’s carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.
Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents’ marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher’s mind.
And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon’s choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotion. The effect is dazzling, making for a novel that is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing is a mind that perceives the world literally.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of the freshest debuts in years: a comedy, a heartbreaker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.
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