Upon first glance, the premise rings very similar to Jonathan Lethem’s ’Motherless Brooklyn’ (scroll to the bottom) featuring an unlikely protagonist-detective with a mental condition determined to solve a murder. ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ has Tourette-afflicted Lionel trying to find out who killed his boss. ‘The Curious Incident’ has 15-year-old autistic math savant, Christopher, using his peculiar logistical skills to figure out who killed his neighbour’s poodle.
But where ‘Motherless’ plays like a straight-up homage to the hard-boiled detective genre, ‘Curious’ is more like a post-modern Hardy Boy. The dog-killer is actually revealed to Christopher in the middle of the story, so not much of a conventional mystery novel there. Ultimately, it’s a heartfelt story about a family dealing with the hardships of raising an autistic child which is told via the kid’s idiosyncratic POV and the odd quirky illustration.
Curious received much critical praise, was on a number of best-selling lists, and won a few awards, so you’ll find lots of online reviews if you’re interested in finding out more.
4 comments:
I read this book when it came out and remember very little of it. I do remember feeling like the way it was written was so affected that I could never really get 'into' the story.
I didn't mind the affectedness of it too much.
although I liked it enough, like for you, the book didn't make a huge impression on me either
(hence the rather neutral review :-)
quick read though!
I read this book a few years ago, and really enjoyed it- in fact, i think i read the whole thing on a long bus ride somewhere or other. At first i found the detachment distracting, because its so unengaging- but then its also so unusual that in a way it became a little haunting to get inside the kids' head in that way.
Just finished it myself. I have mixed feelings. My review is forthcoming.
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