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Comments
Sorry to bring this book up in the middle of a discussion about another one, but I just wanted to say that I struggled with the first few chapters of "We Need To Talk About Kevin", certainly up until Kevin is born. Do keep going though, the rest of the book is definitely worth it :yes:
Its very short though lol, think it could be done in about 2 hours.
I think that might have been really interesting - to get even more of an idea about how Christopher's actions affected those around him and it would have also showed even more the contrast between a typical person's view of things and Christophers.
I enjoyed the book in general and thought it was really interesting to read. I have spent quite a bit of time working with children who are on the autistic spectrum and read a lot of books about this. I have to agree that Curious Incident took a kind of generalisation of the difficulties faced by these people but I do think in some ways it captured it quite well and I think it was a positive thing that the popularity of this book raised the profile of asperger's and perhaps gave some understanding of it to people who had never had any contact with it before.
I'd agree with that, its a lovely little book. Although I'm not sure there is really enough there to discuss in depth.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8123-2369055,00.html
He discusses his own mental health (well a tiny bit) and why he focussed his last and next book on characters affected by these issues.
And I haven't commented on it earlier because I've been absorbed with RL issues and haven't come on The Site for a while.
So, here goes- In general, it's a book I enjoyed a lot reading. I can definitely say it caught my interest, mainly by the originality of the narrating. Mostly I was fascinated with being able to see the world through Christopher's eyes - and I mean it from both the person-with-Aspergers general view and the specific literary character. During the beginning of the book the latter was able to seduce me enough (as in making me as a reader feel close to him and empathise with him), but sadly this aspect wore out through the book. While it advanced I felt Christopher himself becoming blurred and the 'teenager with Aspergers' being relevated more. Like it became less Christopher Boone's story and more 'the story of a lad with Aspergers'. I think this made the novel lose quite a lot of literary merit. You can see it is done for the sake of telling the story (ie focusing on the events) but maybe what mostly differentiates a good novel from an excellent one is the ability to create solid original and attractive characters that don't lose force or depth for the sake of narrating the events (Or otherwise as well, I guess the balance is what is necessary).
I definitely agree with Infinite's opinion that it is a short story stretched into a book. I think Mark Haddon got a little engrossed by wanting to tell a story which had extraordinary elements in it (like the trip to London) but sacrificed character depth (as I said before) for it as well as momentum of the novel. However, I never lost interest completely, it only descended down on some parts. (Although admittedly I have professional interests that kept my attention - I am a child psychologist so seeing the world through a teenager with Aspergers interested me immensley) but I realise it doesn't have to do with the novel's literary merit.
In relation to its merits, my opinion is that the obvious best asset is the accurate portrayal of what the world is like through the eyes of a teenager with Aspergers' syndrome. And alongside that, the realism with which his family's story was written: not just because the kid has an unusual syndrome the parents are different from any other parents. Moreover, how Christopher's syndrome affected the parents was excellently protrayed I thought (as others have mentioned as well). In relation to the style I think the narrating is very original, at least I had never encountered anything similar. In relation to this I found interesting the counterpoint accomplished between the sober, almost ascetic narrating coming from Christopher and the emotionally charged characters of the parents. It is certainly an accomplishment of the novel to be able to transmit -and sometimes provoke- strong emotions on the reader through such a succinct narrating. I especially liked how it was set so you could read between the lines. I found I got more skilled at it the more i got throught the book... actually I think this was one of the things i got most enjoyment out of reading the book (from guessing actual facts- like his mother wasn't really dead long before Christoher did- to realising the parent's psychological and emotional states, for example). In this respect I'm not sure I would have liked a dual narrative Helen - for me at least I think it would have destroyed this effect.
To sum up - not an excellent book, but a good one IMHO.
On a side note - I absolutley adored Siobahn's character. I thought she was lovely. I have a smiliar job now in a school and i would give anything to be as good as her with the children and teens I provide attention for.
And sorry for the long post, I congratulate anyone who got this far :razz:
Agreed - nice feedback bluewisdom