the curious incident of the blog in the night-time

I've managed to get ahead of myself again! But it happens to be fortunate in that as of only last night do I fully realize the significance of the title of this book. I happened to be watching Sherlock Holmes solve a case on the telly, and out rolled the words from his lips: "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time." And it all made sense. The narrator of this book is an autistic 15-year-old named Christopher who loves Sherlock Holmes and finds himself mystified by the case of a dead poodle.

I won't be able to be too specific in discussing this book because I've read another entire book between the time I finished it and now, and I can't wait to spill that one, too, even though I still haven't been keeping up with quotes recently. It's just too much of a hassle on the subway ...
ANYWAY, (as Chuck used to say), this book did almost make me cry. I didn't know it was a sad book until I was riding the subway one day and reached the part where Christopher finds out his mother isn't dead -- she's in London with her lover.

Anyone attempting to read this book over my shoulder on the train probably thought it was horribly written, but that's because Mark Haddon captures his character's voice so well. You feel like it's written by a 10-year-old genius. Nothing Christopher says is a lie, and none of it is without a significant amount of logical reasoning. Sometimes that reasoning extends to Christopher's favorite pastime, "maths." The book is chock-full of equations and diagrams, and Christopher uses them to explain the world around him. It comforts him to have these constants in his life, because he has a difficult time dealing with emotion, and when things get to complicated, he can close his eyes and recite the prime numbers. It also makes him feel better to think about how people's brains are like computers:
"Also people think they're not computers because they have feelings and computers don't have feelings. But feelings are just having a picture on the screen in your head of what is going to happen tomorrow or next year, or what might have happened instead of what did happen, and if it is a happy picture they smile and if it is a sad picture they cry."

It's nothing short of heart-wrenching to watch this character find out that his mother is alive, and then to watch him become frightened of his own father, the dog killer, and then to watch him become the Brave Little Toaster and hop on a train.