Virtuoso

One of my Mothers' Day presents was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I got it Sunday morning, and by Monday night I'd finished it.

Without giving anything away, I'll just say it's told from the point of view of a 15-year-old autistic boy. (You probably knew that already; this book is on everyone's list.) Anyway, this boy does not seem to be as high-functioning as, say, Temple Grandin or Dawn Prince-Hughes, whom I wrote about a couple of months ago. He goes to a special school. He has a lot of trouble filtering out irrelevant stimuli. He has no sense of humor. He has obsessive-compulsive disorder. When overwhelmed he rocks back and forth, puts his hands over his ears, and "does groaning." He's also very bright; he's a math prodigy.

The author gets this boy's voice perfectly, and he never falters. If someone told me this was a true autobiography instead of a novel I would have no trouble believing it. It felt absolutely authentic -- every single sentence. What a feat! How did he do it???

The book reminds me of a certain piece of music. It's a trumpet thing they play fairly regularly on CBC Radio Two, a theme and variations. The theme is the melody "My Hat, It Has Three Corners," though I think it's called something else. The variations get harder and harder and faster and faster until by the end you can hardly believe that it's just one person playing. And you think, "Oh my god, that was amazing! What a feat! How did he do it???" But if you step back for a moment, you realize that the underlying theme is a simple nursery rhyme.

And I think that's the case with this book, too. The underlying plot is pretty simple. There's not a lot of depth or moral ambiguity. It's your typical "coming of age" -- or, ha ha, Someone Leaves Town -- story, but it's nothing that hasn't been said before. The author's technique is dazzling, but there's not a lot underneath.

Or is there? Have you read it? What did you think?