Reviews and Comments

After everyone and their dog have read it (pun unintended), I got around to reading The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Written by Mark Haddon, the novel follows a mathematically gifted autistic pre-teen Christopher as he tries to find out who killed his neighbour's dog. He discovers Mrs. Shears's dog Wellington dead one night with a garden fork sticking through it. Being an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes's mysteries, Christopher decides to find out the culprit. The detection leads him and his loved ones through an emotional journey causing much grief and in the end, a bit of happiness.

The book is narrated by Christopher himself as he tries to jot down his adventure. We get to see/hear/smell the world through the eyes/ears/nose of an autistic child. Being born with a kind of autism called Asperger Syndrome, Christopher sees mathematical numbers and patterns in everything around him. Unlike other humans, his moods and decisions are heavily influenced by these patterns. His social and communication skills are severely stunted and he needs the help of his dad to look after himself. More than the dog murder mystery (which is actually pretty lame), the book generates a lot of thought about autism. Christopher's autistic view of the world is vivid and absorbing. Also, the reader gets to see the hardships of a family tending to such a child and how society treats them. These are what make this book stand out.

TCIOTDIN won the Whitbread Book Of The Year award in 2003. It is a small book and can be read in a noon.

Robert Langdon, a Harvard Univ symbologist finds himself in trouble when Sauniere, the curator of the Paris Louvre Museum is found killed under bizarre circumstances and the clues point to him. However, while dying the curator has left some intriguing symbols on his body and in the museum. Why did he do that? What is he trying to convey through them? Finding that might help Langdon to prove his innocence. The French cryptologist Sophie joins him in the quest for learning the same. They find out that the curator was actually the head of a secret society -- Priory Of The Sion. The society is guarding a most elusive historical object, one which could shake the foundations of Christianity itself - The Holy Grail. Langdon and Sophie find themselves in the quest for this object and against the unseen enemy who is bent on destroying this secret to protect itself.

The Da Vinci Code is a fabulous thriller. Un-put-downable. Dan Brown delights with the details of historical facts, people and places. Fact after fact of modern Christianity is put into doubt as the author points to clues that are all around us. Works of Leonardo Da Vinci play a major role in the novel. I found myself crosschecking the clues in the novel using the internet and examining Da Vinci's works of art. And to top this, as the novel progresses, Sauniere's puzzles just keep on coming in increasing complexity.

"History is written by the winners."

Lance Armstrong's autobiography It's Not About The Bike: My Journey Back To Life is co-authored by him and sports writer Sally Jenkins. I'd been meaning to read this book since I started running last year. It follows his life from his childhood with his divorced mother, his belligerent early successes at cycling, his diagnosis of testicular cancer, his cancer treatment, the fight back to life and finally his methodical training and success at Tour de France. Lance makes no bones about the fact that since he was born he only had a mom and she was solely responsible for his early success. In his early 20s he was a very good cyclist, but only at short races. Due to his short temper he had no chance at winning a multi-day multi-stage race like Tour de France. Then he's diagnosed with testicular cancer which quickly metastasizes to his brain and lungs. He undergoes brain surgery to remove the cancerous tumours in his brain, surgery similarly for lungs and loses one of his testicles. After that comes months of chemotherapy which pushes him to the edge of his life. His doctors give him a 3% chance of survival, but he wins those odds. Back clean from cancer, he skips the other races and trains methodically for the Tour de France, the most gruelling endurance event on this planet. Though dogged by rumourmongers about doping, he wins the 1999 Tour de France in spectacular fashion. The first ever win by an American on an all-American team in this European dominated event. The book ends with the birth of his son Luke and his followup 2000 win. He would later go on to win every Tour de France† from 1999 to 2005, making him the event's most successful cyclist ever. His Lance Armstrong Foundation has also become very popular in raising awareness about cancer and funds for cancer research through its yellow wristband.

The book is a Tour de Force of a read (forgive the pun)! It's very light and quick. Lance goes into detail on his fight over cancer and the 1999 TdF. He insists to the reader that it was his win over cancer that gave him a new perspective on life and that was more important than the wins that came after. The book is (as you can assume) very inspirational. Having taken a bit to running recently, I could understand and empathise with Lance especially when he described how patience and temper is necessary in a long endurance event. In that aspect, endurance events are a metaphor for life (and that's what most people including me feel when running). I can't think of a single reason why anyone shouldn't read this book, please do.

Written and beautifully illustrated by the French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, it's a fable that deals with life (don't they all?!). The story is inspired by a near death experience that the author had when his plane crash-landed in the Sahara. The narrator in the book is the author and he recounts how he met a Little Prince when his plane went down in the desert. Slowly he learns about the life of this Prince who is an alien from a small asteroid. The Prince recounts his story of meeting 6 different men on different asteroids. He then visits Earth where meets a fox. Through the fox the Prince learns a lot of things about life.

Though the book is aimed at kids, I doubt most of them will realize the profound truths hidden in it. The 6 kinds of men the Prince meets are (probably) the humanity typified into 6 kinds. The fox imparts a bit of wisdom about dealing with life to the Prince which is neat. The book is tiny and shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to read.

The book is narrated through Scout, a 6 year old girl. It is set in the 1930s in Maycomb, a sleepy Southern US county. The novel is a Bildungsroman, as we follow the adventures of Scout, her elder brother Jem and their summer vacation friend Dill through their years, we also see significant events happening in the county and how these events shape their thinking. Scout's dad is Atticus, a honest free thinking lawyer. About half of the book sets the stage by introducing the county, the neighbours of Scout, her adventures in school and most importantly the society of the America of those years. The real deal is when Atticus has to defend a black named Tom who has been charged of raping a white girl. As Scout and Jem follow their dad's court ordeal, they also perceive the change in the county towards them (this is Southern USA remember?). It changes their thinking about people and society and starts moulding them into maturity.

The book won a Pulitzer Prize. It was also made into a highly acclaimed movie which I'm now eager to see. I loved the book, couldn't keep it down once I started on it. There are several aspects in the book which endeared it to me — of lost innocence, of racism in the USA, of small town America, of the 2-tone view of a child's world and of how the world is a total complicated mess. Through all the hell around him, Atticus stands as steady as a rock for his children, always making them think about the answers to their queries of the world around them. Lee was apparently inspired by the Scottsboro Boys trial for this book. From what I know, under its shiny veneer racism still lurks in the richest nation of the world. This book is just as relevant today as it was in 1960. Eminently readable.