I read this book several years ago and can remember thinking then, that it was a good choice.
As Rick, my fourteen year old grandson is on the autistic spectrum and was very late being diagnosed, the book was recommended along with many others, in the hope that I would understand the condition better.
I thought the book was so brilliant that I lent it to my daughter and eventually to my son. As so much time had passed, I had forgotten all about it until the book was unexpectedly returned to me a couple of weeks ago.
I was recovering from my last chemo when I found myself reading it again.
The book was finished within a couple of days because I found I had forgotten the exact story line and it is the type of book I like ....... one that I just cannot put down once I start reading. I thought it was so funny and my husband would walk in the room and find me creased up with loud laughter.
It is about a fictitious
15 year old boy.... with Asperger's.
I was not laughing at people who have this syndrome but about the very funny things that happened in the book (though the storyline was far from funny when I come to think of it). The way the boy takes everything so literally is a real feature of this condition and it caused all sorts of complications in the lives of everyone who became involved with him.
Mark Haddon must have an intimate knowledge of Asperger's because no one could possibly write a book of this kind without understanding the condition extremely well.
I thoroughly recommend this book, especially to anyone who has an autistic person in their household or wider circle of friends, because it really does help one to understand the condition better.
