Summer Reading--The Curious Incident of Robert's Summer Reading

Most of my reading, at least in regards to time was logged on the Jersey shore. I started both Catch 22 by Joseph Heller and Tropic of Orange by Karen Tei Yamashita; however, I started Tropic of Orange because Catch 22 took a brief swim in the shore break. And I never finished The Tropic of Orange because it too took a brief swim in the shore break. I never wanted to have a day without a book so when these books got wet I moved on (I have found I love the beginnings of books the most anyway). I liked the beginnings of these books, but I ran out of time to read my other two required books.
Luckily, there was no more ocean when I started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. I started and finished it in an airport, but I did most of my reading on the plane: EWR (Newark) to PHX (Phoenix) nonstop flight 5 hours and 12 minutes. I love to sleep, and I especially love to sleep on planes, but I could not put this book down. Needless to say I liked this book so much I would "do sex" with this book; however, I do not believe in that since I am a good Catholic boy.
I consider myself witty-funny, and the humor of this book was almost eerily similar to my own humor, which is my favorite kind. In the middle of the book I had a realization that I was laughing at a mentally challenged child, but then after a few pages I realized I was not laughing at Christopher, but at Haddon's short, quick, playful, and intelligent wit that was just as sharp as the saw edge of the blade of Christopher’s Swiss army knife. After reading the book I thought about it as a work by an author instead of just a funny book, and I was able to appreciate how well Haddon was able to fully get into the mind of a child like Christopher. The way Haddon rationalizes Christopher's socially unacceptable habits is amazing. When Christopher "does groaning" to think, punches the police officer, and pushes his mother away when she hugs him would normally be socially unorthodox, but Haddon does such a good job rationalizing those events through Christopher’s thoughts that I remember thinking, "well he or she touched him...that's the only reason he flipped out" or "well why would he eat that food...it was yellow and it was touching another food!" I would then realize I had been so deeply engrossed in Christopher's mind that I had detached myself from the real world and how the real world would normally react. Christopher is also a great foil for modern life issues that are discussed in the book such as: adultery, parenting, divorce, and murder. I also really enjoyed the pop culture references, especially the ones to the Apollo Missions and to the Sherlock Holmes novels.
Not that this book is just funny dialogue and thoughts, but those are the best parts of the book. The plot is suspenseful while remaining simple. It is without a doubt interesting enough to keep the suspense high, but more importantly, it functions perfectly as the structure on which witty comments and the observations about life may be placed. The observations I liked best and thought were brilliant were the following: the reasons we choose for not liking something; how people are just like computers; and that most faces are somewhere in-between happy, sad, and mad.
This book represents the point of literature. Literature should be creatively original, humorous, and broach new observations about life. Without these three necessities a book is not good. Haddon's creativity in this book is overwhelming and along with his creativity, his humor and "bloody" brilliant observations shows not just on the pages of his book, but on the success in pages on the New York Times, as this book was on the newspaper's "best seller's" list. Books that that can turn non-readers, such as my brother, into readers are what make books, good books.
I loved everything about this book. I loved it so much still to this day I wish I could shake Haddon's hand and put my hand out and spread my fingers so that Christopher could put his fingers and hand against mine. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is definitely a good book; so good that even thinking about it makes me feel as though I have seen five red cars in a row!