Book: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

This is not a book review. And this is not a book review blog. It is a blog telling experience and sometimes large doses of serious things. Faham ke? Oh, I missed saying that to my Curtin friends. 

I bought Orhan Pamuk's Snow when I was on my way to Johor Bharu few weeks ago in KLCC's Kinokuniya. But I was struggling to finish it. I like Orhan Pamuk's stories because he brings the East and West thing and of course, Islamic identities that are portrayed through the characters which are sometimes not Islamic at all.

I know my friend bought The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time to get some sort of discounts so I left Orhan Pamuk's for a while for this book. At that time, I just bought it from BookXcess for just RM17.90. For non-book buyers, you have to know that it is cheap.

Okay, let's get back to the book. In one-word it's 'light'. However, the reviews say that it is both funny and sad. But I did not feel sad or come across something funny in the book. Yes, I do have feelings. 

If you can finish the book in 1 day, do not bother telling me because it is not an achievement to be proud of. Yes, you can finish it in a day provided you have nothing else to do. Reading the book was like a holiday from Al-Jazeera or CNN to me. It was good not to hear the phrase 'Eurozone crisis' for a day. I begin to like 30 Rock though. 

I do not want to tell the plot of the story but I am going to make you feel not surprised when you read the book as I am going to list down some details:

• A dog was murdered in a neighbourhood in the night-time and hence the title. Duhh.
• There was a boy living in the neighbourhood- smart, hate the colour yellow and brown, eccentric, in our Malay language we call him lurus bendul. He could not tell people's feelings and I share one thing in common with him- Both of us hate people touching our bodies!
• There were conflicts. 
• Who killed the dog?
• His father. 
• Where was his mother?
• She divorced her father since she could not stand taking care of her special son. 
• Guess who did she get married to?
• The dog's owner's husband.
• The boy could not trust his father any more since he lied to him about these things:
• He told the son that his mother had a heart attack and die. His son believed him. The son did not attend the funeral. The truth is, his mother was not dead but his father hid the truth because he could not face to tell the son that his mother could not stand taking care of him. 
• He killed the dog. Why? He had a conflict with the owner.
• If it is to be sad it must be about these things:
• The father did not want his son to be sad so he lied to him about his bad mother
• The mother left the special son for a new husband
• The special son could not understand his father's feelings although he was protecting him from anything
• The special son does not trust his father although he was the one that the son should believe in
• The special son loved the dog. And his father killed it.