The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

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I found this book quite stereotypical. What's concerning, though, is that I see people are passing it around to each other as a means of trying to understand me, just because the character has Asperger's. The book did however remind one lady, whom I'd not told about my diagnosis, of me, while a new manager has started recently at work and has been given a copy because of my having AS.

Its ok that its stereotypical. He builds an archetype in Christopher. Maybe its aspie to forget that the NTs that read this novel will see between the lines and understand that nobody is exactly like that.

Except that I think most don't. The impression that book leaves is that all people with Asperger's are like that. Most people don't realize how diverse a group it really is.

Then again, maybe that's a problem that transcends the book.

Some, certainly. I can ask the OP if she did, but i doubt she did.

In anycase, would they have a more positive view of autism before or after reading the book? Thats what counts.

I recently read this book and I loved it! It was a real hoot to read and I was laughing tyoo much at how much I related to what this guy did.

What's really funny though is that the author of this book claimed to have done very little to none research on Asperger's but now everyone thinks he is such an expert to the point where they keep begging him to come speak in lectures and such. I feel bad for the guy. But ironically he seems to have caught on to Asperger's so much better than most experts in the field can.

I buddy of mine gave me this in JPG format I have yet went through it. I have it backed up somewere on my Main PC tower on one of the hard drives.

love the part where Christopher says he will kill those kids calling him special needs when they come up to him

I only read it once, years ago, so I could be wrong, but my impression was that the book was to autism what Moby Dick is to whaling.

ROFL

I read it, but skipped over a bunch of it. It very stereotypical, yes, and that bothered me. I didn't like the writing style that much and found it really hard to read. I think we might have to read it for school this year, I hope the teacher chooses a different book.

I think it's interesting that lots of people reject the book as representative of them and aspergers.

There's no indication that the protagonist has aspergers at all. There is no diagnosis stated. In fact, I don't think autism is mentioned anywhere in the book.

Yes, obviously it's implied that Christopher is on the spectrum, but not that he has aspergers. Anyone who asserts that is making it up.

I enjoyed the book--thought it was respectful and written well.

Well, on old versions, it says that he has Asperger's on the back.

My paperback copy (published 2003) no mention anywhere.

You are correct. Some editions of the book omitted to even hint that Christopher's character is intended to be an aspie. Other editions say so in their cover notes.

The Wikipedia article is curiously slanted, but the link from there to Mark's blog makes it clear that Mark himself is tired of the constant arguments about this.

The book itself does not state that Christopher has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. Christopher is a fictional character. Certainly his author, Mark, is not qualified to give Christopher any diagnosis.

Now, if the book were not fiction, I would be wholly unsurprised if Christopher turned out to have a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome. However, if so, I would hope the team that had given him that diagnosis had based their decision on more information than is contained in the book's 226 pages.

If I were to invent a fictional character I would hope I am qualified to label him any which way I please. I'm sorry the author feels he has no rights to his intellectual property.

In my books, I try to make my character as far from myself as possible...but then, the character is poorly-developed. I'm not sure how to write someone like me into fiction, though...I'm not being derogatory or anything, but some people might get off-put by a character like me.