This month we are reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon . Please post your opinions and questions in this thread.
Happy reading one and all!
Book Club Procedures
This month we are reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon . Please post your opinions and questions in this thread.
Happy reading one and all!
Book Club Procedures
Last edited by Scheherazade; 06-30-2005 at 06:30 AM.
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
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The scene at the first of the book where he finds the dog gave me mixed emotions. He gives a cold-blooded description of what he sees, yet we are certain that he must feel bad about it. We know that if the dog had been brown or yellow, he would have had an emotional reaction.
You guys have already read it??? I am not going to be starting till next week. I am reading Memoirs of a Geisha at the moment and would like to finish that one first... Or... maybe I can try to read them together... Oh it is so tempting to start a new book when it is sitting on your book shelf!
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
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ok, I confess. I already read it. That's why I voted for it, it will give me a chance to finish C&P. But I do plan on reading it again for this month- it was a pretty easy read and it is really good.Originally Posted by Scheherazade
I especially like all the math references.
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda
You can probably read it in two sittings....three, max. Both because it's relatively short and a quick read, and because it's hard to put down.
We should keep in mind, I think, that there is a reason the book's cover has the title with no capital letters.
If you haven't read this charming little story, do yourself a favor!
Book Club Procedures[/QUOTE]
I have borrowed this edition from the library:
which has capitals in the title...
PS: Out of curiousity, why did you include a link to the Book Club procedures in your post?
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
probably this cover.
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda
Interesting: the cover shown in the post immediately after yours is the only one I had seen. Different artists' concepts. Is the printing on the title page inside caps and l.c. or just l.c.?I have borrowed this edition from the library:
which has capitals in the title...
PS: Out of curiousity, why did you include a link to the Book Club procedures in your post?
The link was something that sneaked in there some how. I had trouble getting the post to go through in the first place, so whatever I did to get it to go through must have included that. It was not my intention to include it.
That is all caps as well... Like you suggested, different artists have different interpretations.
I finished the book yesterday. I really enjoyed it; I like the different twists in the story, which keep the reader going. It is so interesting to see how good Christopher is at observing and 'recording' the physical world around himself while he is so helpless when it comes to interpret social codes and people's behaviours. And the detached language he uses to describe things and retell events...
What did you think about the parents' way of handling things? I was very disappointed with the Mother even though she came back later on. And disappointed with the Father, too though I can how disappointed he must have been at the time and reacted the way he did.
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
I thought the father behaved in a very selfish manner to let his son believe his mother had died...but he didn't have a clue as to how to explain the real situation.
I don't think badly of the mother...she didn't, after all, know that Christopher hadn't been getting her letters.
How about the Mother leaving without any explanations... and hoping the Father would deal with it all... Not only telling Christopher what happened but then taking care of him all on his own as well... One cannot do parenting through letters no matter how good s/he is at the art of letter writing.
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
And if did try to explain it to Christopher can you imagine all the questions christopher would have asked?? But then again, to say some died?? that's a little harsh also.
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda
I think I need to reread the book I cant remember if she comes back to stay or not (in fact I cant remember the ending at all)
The bits that stand out most I think in the nearly a year since I read the book is the bit where he explains autisim as how most people have a little man in there head and he doesnt, before I read that I always imagened I was just weird childthen again the poor man in my had did have trouble with filing and his wife and daughtr ran off with all his money ....
Oh and I remebr somthing about a policeman and the train made me want to laugh and cry at the same time but cant rember why
Oh an when he found the letters now that was sad because of how confused he was.
But I remebre thinking this when I read the book and I still think it now, how reliable is a book written from an autistic point of view by a non autistic peroson? It would be like a born blind person discribing florescent paper, or like someone pretending to be a blind person describing floresent paper
My mission in life is to make YOU smile
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"The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things:
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Mark Haddon had a lot of experience working with autistic people. It isn't the same as being autistic, but he probably has an excellent idea of what goes on inside their heads.
She never felt she was any good at parenting at all. She admits that the father was much better with Christopher than she was. What surrounds Christopher is just another example of what happens when we don't live up to the responsibilities that we assume....we tend to ignore what impact our actions may have on other people (even those we purport to love).
I think the Father's actions were more result of his own personal hurt (ie, telling Christopher that his mom is dead) rather than thinking what is best for his son. I am not sure if it justifies his actions but I can understand his hurt... being left for someone else especially when they have a son like Christopher...
As for the mother... Towards the end of the book I was really wondering if she really cared for the other guy or she merely needed a break from it all as it must be very difficult to bring up a child like Christopher, especially if you think that you are not doing a good job.
Seems like something has gone terribly wrong for the family somewhere along the way and they didn't know how to handle it.
*leaves after stating the obvious*
Last edited by Scheherazade; 07-08-2005 at 04:45 AM.
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
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