The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time: A New Kind Of Hero We Need To Know.

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At the risk of sounding ignorant (okay, of admitting ignorance), I feel as though I've gained ten times as more insight into Asperger's Syndrome than I had before I read this. I don't know whether Haddon did ten months of research, or ten years, or ten days, but I believe him--as if he, the author, is unable to lie just like Christopher John Francis Boone, the story's hero. The subject of truth makes plenty cameos, but they are not all are as simple as a question and an honest-to-God answer (especially since Christopher is steadfastly atheist).

This is how Haddon captivates you: as you follow his story, you realize that the hard lines and angles of Christopher's mind are not as solid as he, Christopher, initially promises. He simply tells us that he cannot tell lies, as if the wiring of his brain doesn't permit it. Yet, as we follow the narrative, we learn that his staggering ability to tell the truth matches his penchant for half-truths, white lies and even deception.

Christopher's deception is borne of a passionate desire to write a book about the murder of a neighbor's dog. The presence of passion in the heart of someone who is all brain, so to speak, makes you root for him, especially when his dishonesty is crafted so closely to the margins of his own logical mandate of telling the truth. Here is a boy with social skills so lacking he barks at those who come near, yet he shares the same lofty ambition with every person who ever took a writing class.

 of beguiling truth bring a largely unfamiliar kind of mind and the more typical mind together, separated by difference that seems only as thick as a mirror. Things so dissonant as math and literature seem not like the antitheses to each other but rather like distant relatives, the kind you meet awkwardly and then suddenly feel you've known forever.

Like an actual sibling or relative, you will get fed up with Christopher, but not ever enough to abandon him. His honesty and careful effusiveness as a writer leaves you so little room to not understand the parts of him that are dark and profoundly human. A strong pinch of your happiness depends on his fate, especially when he discovers who really killed that dog. Christopher is curious, determined, scared, and far more like you than you expect.

If you haven't read this yet, do. Haddon gives us the pleasure of a gripping story, and a sense of clarity that turns Asperger's and autism on its heels to appear less like disability and more as a difference for us to put against the back drop of our own scattered minds.

4 out of 5 stars

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post said the main character in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has autism. While that isn't necessarily false, the clarification must be made that Christopher has Asperger's Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Click here to learn what the difference is under "Characteristics."