I reread a book for the third time last month

Mark Haddon's the curious incident of the dog in the night-time was one of the first novels I read after finishing my graduate degree in 2003. It's written from the perspective of one we assume to be on the autism spectrum (which may or may not be the case) and was fascinating to me as a newly minted highly qualified teacher.

Shortly after graduation, I joined my first book club. The club was  sponsored by our local educational foundation and was open to anyone employed in our school district. It took them a year or so to select the curious incident... for the book club to read and discuss. It was a perfect fit for the group. I wanted to get the most out of the discussion so I reread the book.

September is "Banned Books Month." Every year, Books and Beer Club selects a banned book to read in September. We came up with a long list of titles this year, but this was the one selected. You might be wondering why it was banned. I know that I was. It was banned for language, which I didn't notice so it couldn't have been terrible. But it was also banned because the main character, Christopher, is an atheist. None of the members of my book club where the least offended by this.

Third time around, the book felt too short. Maybe because I knew what was coming. I wanted to dig deeper into the characters of Christopher and his parents. That made it a quick read, though, so I was easily able to finish this book with lots going on in my life.

One of the book club members invited the woman who started and runs our local autism support group. What a resource that must be for parents and caregivers. She even brought along her son who is on the spectrum. He spoke to us first, then she spoke to us. We talked about what might or might not have been inaccuracies in the book and what totally rang true. Afterwards we had our usual interesting discussion. Most of us gave the book a thumbs up.

We talked about going to see the traveling production of the play which was an adaptation of the book, but the only date that many us were free was the weekend we were waiting to see if Hurricane Dorian was coming to town. I think others did eventually see the play, but I did not.

I definitely recommend this book if you haven't already read it.