The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

This is a story about the weirdness of the world as understood by Christopher John Francis Boone, a boy with autism who lives with his father in a small town in the UK. Christopher and his idiosyncrasies are instantly lovable. Through the eyes of a boy who thinks of everyone as different from himself, we’re reminded just how many common threads bind us all together.

Long version: jdaymude.github.io/review/book-the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-nighttime/

Great story. Really gets inside the head of this fictional autistic child. I can't believe how much I related to how he thinks.

A simply delightful book. It gave me a new appreciation of how some autistic people perceive the world around them.

Written from the 1st person perspective of a boy with an Asperger's-like mind, though it feels less affecting than "Flowers for Algernon," because no matter how bad things get, there's a wall between the emotions of the boy and the reader. There's a wall between the emotions of the boy and the world, and his mind compulsively grasps for explanations of what's happening around him and why people say odd things to him.

The reader has to make their own sense of his world as related by his solipsistic view of it, and so develops a kindly condescension for him. I think the value of this book, aside from being a well-structured and enjoyable story, is that it helps the reader gain some compassion for the irrationality of others who process information differently and live in their own world.