 |
| I had book-crush on her.. aww.. |
My rating: ❤❤❤❤1/2
This is a murder mystery novel. Siobhan said that I should write something I would want to read myself. Mostly I read books about science and maths. I do not like proper novels. In proper novels people say things like, "I am veined with iron, with silver and with streaks of common mud. I cannot contract into the firm fist with which those clench who do not depend on stimulus." What does this mean? I do not know. Nor does Father. Nor does Siobhan or Mr. Jeavons. I have asked them.
-Christopher John Francis Boone-
I know, the title itself is curious enough.. but who cares, as long as its a time worthy read.. In fact, i think, the curious title is very catchy and attractive.. and for the cover, I LOVE IT.. Its very simple, but when you read it, you'll know why the book is covered in that particular fashion.. It just suits well with the storyline.. To add to the fun part, when you read this book with the cover exposed, at first sight, scratch that, make it maybe even after a few times squinting the book you're reading, it would seem like you're reading the book upside down.. Funny, right? seriously, the first time I had my hand on this book, I was like, wait, how to read this?.. Its just that when we look at the cover, the first thing we would notice is the silhouette of an horizontally inverted poodle.. So, scientifically, our mind would assume that the book we're holding is actually, upside down, disregarding the orientation of the wordings.. Why? Simple answer, because our mind had tendency to trust images rather than words.. I'm sorry if its not that accurate - well, I dont expect it to be - because I made it up.. But, seriously, its believable right?
Whoa, this is the longest book cover description I had ever posted in The Adult Circus's history of book review.. Anyway, moving to the content, the whole story is based on the point of view of an autistic 15 years old boy.. Being autistic, aside from the slow mental capability of translating signs, gestures, or any other stuffs, this boy, Christopher John Francis Boone, is very genius.. Mathematically, and physics-wise.. Because the whole story is narrated by Christopher himself, he never said that he is autistic, instead, he describe himself as a mathematician with behaviour problem..
However, things change one night when Christopher found the dead body of his neighbour's black poodle.. Christopher decided to investigate the murder of that dog.. Sounds silly, right? but believe me, the storyline is far more than that.. Its about his adventure revealing secrets - not only about the murder, but also about his family and himself - that he never knew before.. To make it even more interesting, its all narrated from his point of view.. Praise to Mark Haddon that this book manage to put the readers into deepest empathy (honestly, my mum even asked me if its a true story over and over again while reading it.. But of course, its fictional).. Honestly, after reading this book, I actually had wished I was autistic too.. Until my mum told me that not all autistic kids are like Christopher.. Some of them are very hyperactive that they love to smash stuffs around.. Right afterward, I'm glad I'm not autistic..
The plots are very well written.. The characters are like really really real and alive.. Reading this, I almost tricked myself (several times) to believe that it actually happened, seriously! I mean, its that hard to get the fact that the whole thing is fictional! Job well done, Mark Haddon.. The narration is also helped by figures, graphs, and tables - another thing to trick us that the book is written by an autistic boy..
If you love maths, trust me, go to the nearest bookstore and get this.. You'll love it instantly.. There's lots of mathematical problems and stuffs that you'll love.. However, to those who cant be categorized as nerds or study freak, not to worry, you'll love it too.. Honestly, trust me, I'm not a maths maniac too.. Its just that those maths freaks would love it more, i guess.. Above all, just read it.. This will definitely be your next book-crush.. If not, you'll just have to ponder a little bit on how come it had won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book... Even if you dont want to take my words, at least, let yourself think why would people ever give a damn to award this book..
No comments:
Post a Comment