the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

I've had few personal experiences with someone with autism, but I've seen them portrayed in movies and on television. The little boy Christopher in this book is quirky, smart, and very passionate about the things that interest him. But he also seems to be very robotic and almost incapable of true emotion. This, however, couldn't be farther from the truth. The most interesting, and eye-opening part of the story to me was when Christopher describes having two "Black Days" in a row (a "Black Day" is what he considers a bad day - after seeing four yellow cars in a row on his way to school, yellow being his least favorite color)...

"The next day I saw 4 yellow cars in a row on the way to school, which made it a Black Day... And the next day, too, I saw 4 yellow cars in a row on the way to school, which made it another Black Day... But on the third day I kept my eyes closed all the way to school until we got off the bus because after I have had 2 Black Days in a row I'm allowed to do that."

His logic for a bad day may not make any sense to us, but how often do we allow ourselves to "close our eyes", simply to have a break from that which bothers us? I really liked this book, and thought the writing was fantastic. The author made the Christopher and his adventures come alive.

~sf

(Review originally posted at http://fivewivesandabook.blogspot.com/2011/07/curious-incident-of-dog-in-night-time.html)