Wiki of TCIOTDITN
[Unrelated to the geek review - I'm pretty darn irritated with Blogger and my inability to upload a picture successfully. Don't know if it's cos of singnet or whatever silly reasons but it's really getting on my nerves. Rargh.]
TCIOTDITN by Mark Haddon is one of those bestselling must-read books like The Life of Pi and The Kite Runner which I never quite got round to picking up. Well, in the recent Kino National Day sale, I did, which I'm glad for.
Christopher, the 15 year old main character, is autistic and the story is told from his perspective. Through this first person narrative, it opened up my eyes to how the mind of an autistic person works. And it is truly humbling. When we see individuals behaving strangely in public, we automatically keep a wide berth, and, more often than not, label them 'crazy' or 'disturbed'. But as I read how Christopher reacts to people and his environment, and conversely how they react to him, it made me sad to be reminded that our society treats people who are 'different' badly.
I laughed, and I cried reading TCIOTDITN - while the book had plenty of lighthearted moments, there were times when it was just heartbreaking. It truly is a contemporary must-read.
8.5 ninjadogs.
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