Friday, June 25, 2010

Book review

A lot of my family is over at my house right now, frolicking around in my pool.  My sister-aunt and my two nephews, my aunt and my two cousins, my cousin's friend, etc.  Every summer we always have these days where my aunt brings over chicken and potato wedges and we all veg out on my deck or frolic in the pool.  And it's usually a good time.  Except this year Abby's not here because she's off to God knows where, and it's kind of depressing for me, so I went into my room.  It's cooler in here anyway.  I've mastered the art of keeping my room cool without the use of AC.

I was thinking of blogging about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon.  I just finished reading it on Wednesday and it is one of the best books I've read in a really long time.  The book is told from Christopher's point of view, who is 15 and mentally challenged.  Christopher's an idiot savant, I guess you could say, because he's very gifted when it comes to logic, math, and science, but he can't figure out emotions.  It's a condition called Asperger's syndrome, which I suspected that's what Christopher had when I was reading the book, but a little research confirmed this.

I think that Haddon writing from the point of view of someone who's mentally challenged is surprising, brilliant, and piercing.  It's often controversial when an author writes from a point of view that's not their own and through this he creates a strong message to everyone about the mentally challenged's rights.  The last paragraph is Christopher concluding that he did all of these things, and because of that, he can do anything.  It's heartwarming.  I very much recommend it.

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