For the past few months, reading has become a rare occurrence. I am engaged in teaching, playing strategy games, cooking, sleeping and the last ‘ing’ form that I do is reading. Maybe I have become more selective in my reading. I don’t read to flaunt, I don’t read to talk about what I have read, but I read for personal gratification. So last week when I had visited ‘Amchi Mumbai’ I purchased two books – the first one (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time), I have finished reading and I am all set to prepare a review of the same. The book was lying there in a corner at Depot Mall near Santa Cruz and I regard myself lucky to possess this book. It is like adding one richer feather to my collection of ‘wordy feathers’ at Home. The second one is ‘Once upon a Time zone’ by Neelesh Mishra. Again a specimen of cross cultural writing. I have not laid my hands on the book, but will do soon.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is authored by Mark Haddon. The words which really got me hooked on to the book were printed in the back cover (Blurb) – “Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color of Yellow”. I liked the author because he is doing something which I really wanted to in my life – He teaches Creative Writing. Also as ‘a young man Haddon worked with autistic individuals’
The story is about Christopher who plays the detective (inspired by Sherlock Holmes) to solve the ‘murder’ (or shall we call it dogicide) of the poodle Wellington (inspired by The Hound of the Baskervilles). He is a persistent detective and the moment he finds out who killed Wellington the story takes a different turn. When Christopher realizes that his dad was the one…oops (I know that it is a spoiler…anyway who cares) he decides to leave for London to stay with his mom. The narrative ends with Christopher getting ready for the further A-level exams. That’s about the story.
Now reading this book was a different experience. First of all it dealt with a boy who has got a special ability. His world is different from ours and the author has truly done a marvelous task of making the reader empathize with the boy and his mind. It is so beautifully done that the words fails to recapture that feeling. I would like to quote one part of the book which talks about Christopher’s journey to London.
“And I looked out of the window and we were going past factories and scarp yards full of old cars and there were 4 caravans in a muddy field with 2 dogs and some clothes hanging up to dry. And outside the window it was like a map, except that it was in 3 dimensions and it was life-size because it was the thing it was a map of”
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is authored by Mark Haddon. The words which really got me hooked on to the book were printed in the back cover (Blurb) – “Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color of Yellow”. I liked the author because he is doing something which I really wanted to in my life – He teaches Creative Writing. Also as ‘a young man Haddon worked with autistic individuals’
The story is about Christopher who plays the detective (inspired by Sherlock Holmes) to solve the ‘murder’ (or shall we call it dogicide) of the poodle Wellington (inspired by The Hound of the Baskervilles). He is a persistent detective and the moment he finds out who killed Wellington the story takes a different turn. When Christopher realizes that his dad was the one…oops (I know that it is a spoiler…anyway who cares) he decides to leave for London to stay with his mom. The narrative ends with Christopher getting ready for the further A-level exams. That’s about the story.
Now reading this book was a different experience. First of all it dealt with a boy who has got a special ability. His world is different from ours and the author has truly done a marvelous task of making the reader empathize with the boy and his mind. It is so beautifully done that the words fails to recapture that feeling. I would like to quote one part of the book which talks about Christopher’s journey to London.
“And I looked out of the window and we were going past factories and scarp yards full of old cars and there were 4 caravans in a muddy field with 2 dogs and some clothes hanging up to dry. And outside the window it was like a map, except that it was in 3 dimensions and it was life-size because it was the thing it was a map of”
Hope one day you will befriend Christopher...
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