The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon has caused a stir in Salt Lake City according to my friend there, Carrie. You can read about the controversy in a humorous essay here:
http://rationalistswearingsombreros.typepad.com/rationalists_wearing_somb/2004/08/a_curious_incid.html

Carrie told me that to get a copy of the book you had to ask for it at the bookstore and they would get it from the back. The reason why it was banned: They scanned the book and found that the word "fuck" appeared in it several times. That's it. That's all. They should ban half the books in the world if they are going to be so strict, but they picked on this one because it made it to the Salt Lake City Community Book Club reading list or something like that. The funny thing is that this was also released as a children's book in Britain (although, I'm sure that they took the bad word out).

I quite liked it. It was a delightfully fast read. It is written from the perspective of a 15 year-old boy Asperger's syndrome (a mild variant of autism). The best part, I think, is that you, the reader, can figure out what is going on before the boy does simply by the fact that he is unable to easily interpret the emotions of others. It really makes you appreciate the ability we have to process information haphazardly and read the non-verbal cues from others. It also puts you in awe of a very logical mind.

My mother read it as well and said that it really reminded her of some of the autistic children she had taught.

I also read an interview of the author and he said that people are coming up with their own emotions for the book. Some say it is sad and they weep through the whole thing and others say it was charming and at times funny. I just thought it was interesting and didn't assign emotions to it.