Manny's Reviews > The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel

I think it's a little more akin to rubber necking. As someone who works with students with behavioral and learning disabilities in regard to their education, I think it might be a bit more akin to what we call "rubber-necking" in the USA. I also think that the autism-spectrum is so wide that it's really difficult for me to use such a word outside of its handiness for providing therapy and intervention. I kind of like the fact that I haven't read the word much yet as of page 150. I'm a little concerned about how labels affect behavior and expectations. Anyway, my best to you and your family. Autism is not something new, if we have found a place in society for difference prior to the DSM-III, IV, & V, we better be able to include them now that it has been named.

This made me think, are you planning to read Higashida's "The Reason I Jump"? I found that book kind of beautiful and I know I need to read Haddon's book at some point, too. (I have Asperger's, so I could relate to some points of Higashida's book, though not Autistic, nor completely typical in Asperger's sense either.)

My only child (son) is on the spectrum as well. Reading this book helped me appreciate his throughout process in a way that I could not before. It also really made me mad at my son (joking of course) in that it takes my son forever to get dressed in the morning!

Properly understood, the spectrum includes the "neurotypical".

"Funny how it's suddenly become cool to be autistic..."

There is this great scene in 'Moonrise Kingdom', where the female lead says, "I always wished I was an orphan. Most of my favorite characters are. I think your lives are more special." And the male lead responds, "I love you, but you don't know what you're talking about."

That said, I agree it would be nice if more people took the nerd like attitude of treating competency as charisma, and charisma as just another thing you can be competent in. Not that 'nerd' actually spans the full range of autism spectrum or that all nerds are autistic, but that is one area of nerddom I rather like.

But I don't actually think we are changing anything. We've just got a new sort of romanticized stock character, to hang alongside kickbutt female warrior, goofy Asian sidekick, and wisecracking black guy. 'The Big Bang Theory' remains less a show for nerds, than a show about nerds. It's nice that the portrayal is somewhat more sympathetic than before, but I don't think we are there yet.

"... it's suddenly become cool to be autistic... "

That's about the stupidest statement I ever read.

I just saw this review, Manny, and see we have in common autistic sons, which is one reason I liked this book.

Ah, I didn't know... it's complicated, isn't it. The weird thing is that the author apparently denies that the central character is to be read as autistic spectrum, which to me makes no sense at all. Funny to see the things that authors say about their books.

I think he was getting a tremendous amount of pushback from some by this novel....he was getting calls from people who had autistic relatives and he said he was not an expert on autism. But Oliver Sacks, the renowned neurologist, gave it a rave review so there had to be some truth in the book.

Ah, that makes sense. So, the same as when Houellebecq kept saying in interviews that the sect in La possibilité d'une île had nothing to do with the Raëlians, when it was obvious they were. In that case I believe the Raëlians eventually said they liked it and he kind of took it back. Maybe the same will happen here. It's a very positive depiction of autistic spectrum.

Also, on the cover of the UK first edition hardback, Oliver Sacks mentions autism (or maybe Aspergers - I'll have to check when I get home) in a quote.

EDIT: Yep. The quote on the back is:
"Mark Haddon shows great insight into the autistic mind." Photo HERE. That's from 2003.