Yesterday's post was about a heavy-handed Asperger's narrator. Want to read a good exploration of autism? In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time the main character just happens to be autistic. Unlike Mockingbird's main character, there's a plot beyond the autism aspect.Of course, through his autism, Christopher John Francis Boone - Curious Incident's protagonist - sees the world differently. Emotions confuse him so he still buys wholeheartedly into his father's lies, even at age 15. The dead neighbor's dog is an injustice in his highly logical world (the chapters are numbered in chronological prime numbers because he likes math). But because he loves Sherlock Holmes, Christopher wants to solve a mystery: why did the neighbor's dog die? Because the book starts as a mystery with an unusual narrator (and it is now said that Sherlock Holmes himself would be diagnosed with a form of high-functioning autism), it is wonderful. The author isn't trying to make a point about autism. His autistic narrator has a journey to explore. His youth and sheltered world-view make that journey unique. Curious Incident is an unusual hybrid: coming-of-age mystery. And it is highly recommended.
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