Thoughts on "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time"?

Ah, just asked this question myself, hadn't spotted this. I personally found it fascinating. I really enjoyed it, as someone still struggling with whether the Aspergers diagnosis fits for me (I was diagnosed in very unfortunate circumstances and by a health professional not truly qualified to offer the diagnosis who then did not tell me the traits she observed to base this on) personally I can relate to parts of this book, I feel overall though for me at least it is far more pronounced if this was agreed to be a fairly universal representative of "high functioning Aspergers" as the I internet (never a reliable source I know) tried to tell me it was. I would presume that this is less functioning? I do t know, the people I know in real life do not struggle this far, though they are older and that may be a large proportion of that. 

To me the part that rang the most true was that the recurring sense of alarm he feels when he notes that his thinking is impaired when he becomes stressed. I do this myself, when pushing myself more than I know I should I realise I am beginning to struggle with what should be simple (telling left and right) that the things that push me to this are difficult social interactions more than anything else. Some of the general anxiety parts in general, reading it I began to realise that while I do not drum, if overwhelmed I walk, long distance and part of that is rhythm which makes it comforting. I wear headphones when I do this and have increasingly when struggling to function taken to wearing them without music, so mute the world a bit and as an excuse not to talk to people. Also a tendency not to look at people narrow my vision, focus ahead. Normally with the dog is enough, but when very stressed I need to walk without him as he is more distraction than I can take and stops it being as effective at calming me. 

I have never really been a maths brain, but I could relate to schedules, I do not need this all the time, but if I become overwhelmed stressed or feel impaired I find it helpful to make a similar style schedule to the one he does. If I did have a "savant" skill it would be in how things are made, I can picture and dismantle things quite clearly in my head and I believe this may be unusual. 

Also a weird one, the "when I need to go to the toilet I need to go very rapidly" that is quite true for me, never quite wet myself and always just assumed it was because I drank too much coffee haha. 

He is also very unaware of the thoughts of others, never even considers them really. Where as I find myself spending a huge amount of my mental energy analysing my own thoughts and wondering what the thoughts of others are. I have a similar reactions to being deceieved by close people, I have experienced what would likely be more harmful and traumatic things from people who were close to me but still lies, deception and betrayal similar (though not that extreme) where still far more harmful, disturbing, unsettling, damaging, world cracking than any of those things and I wonder if that is an Aspergers trait. 

For me I would think that possibly I am just not so visual based but more texture, touch based. I can relate to becoming physically ill when distressed before becoming aware of the emotional problems, though I have been working on that and have generally gotten better at emotional awareness. Which may be more unbringing based than an Aspergers thing as shows of emotion particularly distress are still punished in my family. Just rambling now, and realise this thread is old so there now be no interest but yes I was fascinated by this book.

I read the book when it came out and found it fascinating, but there was nothing in my daughter's behaviour at that time which rang alarm bells. She's now 14 and we went with her school three weeks ago to see the play, which led her to talk to me about it afterwards. We're now waiting for a hospital appointment to discuss a formal diagnosis of what I am sure is AS.

I'm so pleased we saw the play as she took it as her opportunity to open up and let me see behind her incredibly good masking behaviours, in an attempt to get some help. Otherwise we could have gone on for months or years before she got up the courage to do something about it. Thank you Mark Haddon :)

I read this a long long time ago (maybe 10 years or more) and I remember enjoying it.  want to read it again now I know more about aspergers and especially now that I think I have aspergers myself (but I don't want to be diagnosed, I don't think it's worth the hassle). 

I read this last xmas, not knowing that it was about autism, but when I was first thinking that I may have aspergers. My first reaction was, that the author had read a book about autism and produced a chapter in his book to illustrate each chapter in the text book. Certain details annoyed me and spoilt my enjoyment, perhaps an autistic trait in itself. For example I believed that lessons in school on how to use money, would not be necessary for one so good at maths.

The part where he discovered his mother was alive and that he had been lied to by his father, where he ceased to function, was sick and just layin bed, came as a shock to me. It was the first time that I truly recognised that I may really be on the spectum. I react almost as he did, on rare occasions (and as I read that chapter). I become(became) stone cold and weak and just go to bed to wait until I come back to life. It was a frightening realisation, which took a long time to come to terms with, but finally made me study the subject in more detail. I moved from being in denial, to facing reality.

I totally agree Yellow Sunflower - I read the book first, before our daughter was diagnosed with autism, and was intrigued by it!

The play is on tour - My Christmas wish would be that GP's, School workers, Social workers etc went to see it - the number of people I have met this year who should know about ASD and didn't, has been very eye-opening!

My only concern were the special effects that were used - I suffer with migraines and the lighting they used was bothering me so I had to close my eyes a lot! A lot of loud noise too, but you are warned before.

I came out of the performance better informed. Yes, a sequal would be a great!

This is one of my favourite books. I have aspergers and adult attention defficite dissorder and find it really difficult to find the right style of book. I got totally absorbed in the book and for the first time in years got time out from my mind wizzing. i loved how true to life the character was and thought the book was cleverly written with such wit, emapthy and insight. fingers crossed there is a sequal

Just been to see 'The Curious Incident....' at 'The Lowry' , Manchester - I was captivated for 2 hours 40 mins!

Yes, of course there is a masssive spectrum that needs to be considered, but the play goes a long way in spreading the needs of folk on the spectrum, in an intelligent way.

Everybody would benefit from seeing this play!

electra said:

I read the first chapter of that book as a Kindle sample. I liked her ideas on how we are different but had no appetite for the rest of the book.

There is also Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer. It won an award but an AS friend didn't like the way the main AS character was depicted - too stereotyped. I tried to read it and found the prose style clumsy so managed only two pages! The way the AS man's thought processes were described didn't ring true for me either.

Are there any fictional works about people on the spectrum by an author on the spectrum?

I liked the book. When I read it, I thought I had dyspraxia but I'm now tending towards the view that I have Asperger's. I read it purely as a work of fiction, with a central character who had special needs. I could relate to a lot of things and especially liked the numbering of the chapters, although it caused me some confusion at first! I guessed much of the outcome but that doesn't take anything away from it.

Thinking about it again, I would still recognise it as worth reading. To me, I can relate to some of the personality traits of the main character but I am not as extreme. Maybe, part of the issue is that a stereotypical person with Aspeger's syndrome doesn't exist. We are all different and, whilst I was the best at maths in my school year, I could not have contemplated sitting A levels at 15.

As a writer myself, someone who would simply not go to school if they saw 4 yellow cars in a row is a more interesting character than someone who merely had a stress reaction and was cautious for the rest of the day.

As for the last question, I have written a book where the main character is based on myself but the first draft was rejected by a publisher and I need to do a lot of re-work. Unfortunately, at the moment, due to a family crisis, I have stopped all of my writing but will complete a special interest book before I tackle the novel.

I read the first chapter of that book as a Kindle sample. I liked her ideas on how we are different but had no appetite for the rest of the book.

There is also Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer. It won an award but an AS friend didn't like the way the main AS character was depicted - too stereotyped. I tried to read it and found the prose style clumsy so managed only two pages! The way the AS man's thought processes were described didn't ring true for me either.

Are there any fictional works about people on the spectrum by an author on the spectrum?

I've never read it but i'm going to amazon for it now. Have you read Elizabeth Moons "Speed of Dark"? 

Liv,

your post prompted me to re-read the book. I initially read it a few years ago when I thought I was NT. One of my strongest memories was the Monty Hall problem! This in itself tells you something. i was less interested in the emotional trauma of the story than the maths and logic. Reading it now, I find it awkward as I recognise some of the faux pas that I have made in my life.

I read the book about 7 years ago now and it was my first introduction to the world of Asperger Syndrome and inspired me to learn more about it. I'm an NT. I saw the play not that long ago and I found it one of the best plays I've seen in a very long time - totally captivating. I thought it was staged brilliantly and the way they use the stage floor really interesting. The bit where Christopher is negotiating the underground system was so stressful to watch! I think does a good job of portraying how some people with Asperger Sydrome would feel in that situation.  

Adél, NAS mod (posting in a personal capacity)

Hi, I read this book a number of years ago.  I'm an NT.  I think for NTs reading it, it is so very clever because it's an "easy" read, deceptively easy.  It does a great job of expanding the knowledge NTs have about autism, altho I do accept the comments you make in your post - we are all different .  I've booked tickets to see it on the stage.