I hate to admit, but the second quarter
of the book isn't quite as intriguing. My initial review probably
should've been a bit more critical. Nevertheless, The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is still an interesting
read. I admit I read a little past this quarter of the book, as page
113 is an awful place to stop. A major plot twist is taking place:
Christopher's mother is actually still alive, and has been trying to
communicate with him by means of letters for years. His father has
been hiding all of these letters in a box underneath his bed.
Christopher continues to go off topic
with mathematical formulas, but his humour and perception on life
continues to shine. His list of why he didn't like brown things made
me laugh, particularly his bit about a girl named Melissa Brown:
Melissa Brown (who is a girl at school, who is not actually brown like Anil or Mohammed, it's just her name, but she tore my big astronaut painting into two pieces and I threw it away even after Mrs. Peters sellotaped it together again because it looked broken).
The humour like
this though causes major conflict with the dark storyline. It's often hard
to know how to react. After getting this far in the book, also picked up on some foreshadowing from
earlier on page 58. Mrs. Alexander seemed surprised when Christopher
explained that his mother had died of a heart attack in the hospital. This is because she knew that Christopher's mother had not died, and was in London was Mr. Shears.
I'm starting to question whether this was the right book choice for me. It is a good read, and not really comparable to anything else, although I thought this book would have a little more depth. The plot is hardly about the initial conflict anymore, and is more so a window into the autistic mind of Christopher Boone.
I'm also wondering how a film adaptation could possibly work. This book is mostly self-narrated! We shall see. I hope this book can again give me the intrigue it did at first.
I can see what you're trying to say when you question why you chose this book. I had some of the same when I first got the book, because the blurb on the back cover seemed like a childish book. However, a few pages into the book, it got better. It's obviously not a book with a lot of emotional depth. Chris going into "depth" involves mainly explaining a certain event or solving a mathematicalproblem related to the event. You understand where I'm getting at?
ReplyDeleteI do. I understand that this is supposed to help you understand his autistic behaviour and explain some of his quirks. I was looking for a really defined book with a lot to look at and loads to examine and emotionally connect to, but I didn't find it here.
ReplyDeletePersonally one reason I picked this book was because I thought it would be kind of fun. However this book is dark and a little depressing even with Christopher’s quirky comments. So I can understand why you are regretting your book choice. Your comment about the film adaptation made me curious as well. Will it still be narrated by Christopher?
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