Re-reading my previous post, I realised I didn't say anything, good or bad, about Brazzaville Beach. In fact, it's excellent. Boyd's limpid prose is at odds with the stuff I usually favour: 'I am a story, hear me roar'/complicated twists and turns/total involvement material. His stories tend to stand back even from themselves, and always contain an element of odd perspective. That is not to say he doesn't tell a good tale - 'cos he does.
Anyway, I forgot, I also read The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Ostensibly for kids - but who cares? Philip Pullman, when asked recently for whom he writes, said:
Myself. No-one else. If the story I write turns out to be the sort of thing that children enjoy reading, then well and good. But I don't write for children: I write books that children read. Some clever adults read them too.
Definitely not suggesting I'm a clever adult - in terms of my reading tastes, I guess I'm more of a child refusing to grow up.
Mark Haddon's gorgeous book has been read by lots of people, especially after winning the Whitbread I imagine. It's a tender, and extraordinarily empathetic tale of a boy with Asperger's Syndrome who tries to do a bit of detective work after finding a dead dog in his neighbour's garden. The dog becomes peripheral cos the story is really about Christopher, the boy, his life, his ideas and thoughts and his family. Lots of cute explanations about gravity, and calculus because Christopher feels comfortable with the world of science and mathematics but not so comfortable with the rest of our reality. Reminded me of lots of facts that I once knew when I was doing Maths and promptly forgot as I walked out of the exam hall. Also, oddly, and somewhat embarrassingly, so is the Da Vinci Code. Stuff about the Divine Proportion, for example. Magnificent stuff - trashy book. Is that allowed?
Anyway, I forgot, I also read The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Ostensibly for kids - but who cares? Philip Pullman, when asked recently for whom he writes, said:
Myself. No-one else. If the story I write turns out to be the sort of thing that children enjoy reading, then well and good. But I don't write for children: I write books that children read. Some clever adults read them too.
Definitely not suggesting I'm a clever adult - in terms of my reading tastes, I guess I'm more of a child refusing to grow up.
Mark Haddon's gorgeous book has been read by lots of people, especially after winning the Whitbread I imagine. It's a tender, and extraordinarily empathetic tale of a boy with Asperger's Syndrome who tries to do a bit of detective work after finding a dead dog in his neighbour's garden. The dog becomes peripheral cos the story is really about Christopher, the boy, his life, his ideas and thoughts and his family. Lots of cute explanations about gravity, and calculus because Christopher feels comfortable with the world of science and mathematics but not so comfortable with the rest of our reality. Reminded me of lots of facts that I once knew when I was doing Maths and promptly forgot as I walked out of the exam hall. Also, oddly, and somewhat embarrassingly, so is the Da Vinci Code. Stuff about the Divine Proportion, for example. Magnificent stuff - trashy book. Is that allowed?
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