By Mark Haddon
Discussion led by T. Taylor
"[Our protagonist is] a literalist by neurology." Debbie Lee Wasselman
"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes." the literary character Sherlock Holmes
Hello book mavens,
The time is upon us when we look with excitement to the coming year of book club titles chosen by eleven intrepid members of the group. Perhaps bravest of all is Trudy Taylor, who not only volunteered to monitor the first discussion, but chose a most unusual story and narrator for our consideration.
Highly regarded and much discussed since its publication in 2004, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time draws us into the strange mindscape of one Christopher John Francis Boone, a mildly autistic 15 year old British subject bent on discovering the identity of the person (or persons) responsible for the death of a neighborhood dog named Wellington. What ensues may be one of the oddest gumshoe yarns written in English in the past century.
So, it seems we'll kick off the reading year in enjoyable, if bizarre fashion with a fiction designed to give us a new perspective on the anomalies of the human brain and what they can mean for communities and families encountering them.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1.--I feel honored to be moderating the first book in a new category we shall read about on a 12 to 24 month basis. That category being an examination of a group or sub group of individuals not often examined in the mainstream. With the apparently baffling increase in diagnoses in and along the autistic continuum, would you agree that the subject of Asperger's Syndrome is relevant enough to herald in this new category of books we wish to examine?
2.--By choosing to write this tale entirely in the voice of the 15 y/o Christopher, the author must develop a believable character who changes and develops throughout the book. He had to accept the restrictions as well as gain leverage from the at times mesmerizing quirks of Christopher's neurological wiring. Does a believable character arise? Did the author, who is not affected by Asperger's Syndrome, succeed in creating a believable character - one strong enough to carry the story line? Or did you think the plot was tapered by the fact that the protagonist was, in many ways, limited in what he could feel and communicate?
3.--Another opinion voiced by critics is that readers tend to feel as if they empathize completely with the young Christopher. Upon completing the novel, the author's first, by the way, did you feel that the whole of the Asperger's conundrum had been exposed to you, and that you would be able to advance in understanding the myriad problems associated with such unusual individuals? Did you walk away with the idea that in the future you would be able to perceive dimensions to the personality of one such as Christopher if you could but spend time with them?
4.--Several citizen critics flatly stated that a person like Christopher could not feel emotions. Did your reading of this book leave you with the conclusion that this particular character was devoid of emotion?
5.--I was surprised to find this book clumped in with Life of Pi and The Secret Life of Bees as a coming of "mystic" age (mystic teenagers books). If you have read either of these books or similar ones, do you agree?
6.--Is it more interesting to talk about this book than to read it?
"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes." the literary character Sherlock Holmes
Hello book mavens,
The time is upon us when we look with excitement to the coming year of book club titles chosen by eleven intrepid members of the group. Perhaps bravest of all is Trudy Taylor, who not only volunteered to monitor the first discussion, but chose a most unusual story and narrator for our consideration.
Highly regarded and much discussed since its publication in 2004, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time draws us into the strange mindscape of one Christopher John Francis Boone, a mildly autistic 15 year old British subject bent on discovering the identity of the person (or persons) responsible for the death of a neighborhood dog named Wellington. What ensues may be one of the oddest gumshoe yarns written in English in the past century.
So, it seems we'll kick off the reading year in enjoyable, if bizarre fashion with a fiction designed to give us a new perspective on the anomalies of the human brain and what they can mean for communities and families encountering them.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1.--I feel honored to be moderating the first book in a new category we shall read about on a 12 to 24 month basis. That category being an examination of a group or sub group of individuals not often examined in the mainstream. With the apparently baffling increase in diagnoses in and along the autistic continuum, would you agree that the subject of Asperger's Syndrome is relevant enough to herald in this new category of books we wish to examine?
2.--By choosing to write this tale entirely in the voice of the 15 y/o Christopher, the author must develop a believable character who changes and develops throughout the book. He had to accept the restrictions as well as gain leverage from the at times mesmerizing quirks of Christopher's neurological wiring. Does a believable character arise? Did the author, who is not affected by Asperger's Syndrome, succeed in creating a believable character - one strong enough to carry the story line? Or did you think the plot was tapered by the fact that the protagonist was, in many ways, limited in what he could feel and communicate?
3.--Another opinion voiced by critics is that readers tend to feel as if they empathize completely with the young Christopher. Upon completing the novel, the author's first, by the way, did you feel that the whole of the Asperger's conundrum had been exposed to you, and that you would be able to advance in understanding the myriad problems associated with such unusual individuals? Did you walk away with the idea that in the future you would be able to perceive dimensions to the personality of one such as Christopher if you could but spend time with them?
4.--Several citizen critics flatly stated that a person like Christopher could not feel emotions. Did your reading of this book leave you with the conclusion that this particular character was devoid of emotion?
5.--I was surprised to find this book clumped in with Life of Pi and The Secret Life of Bees as a coming of "mystic" age (mystic teenagers books). If you have read either of these books or similar ones, do you agree?
6.--Is it more interesting to talk about this book than to read it?
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