Ben, in the World by Doris Lessing

DATE FINISHED: September 4th, 2012 

RATED: *** (3.5)

SYNOPSIS:  At 18 years old (looking twice his age) Ben has left home, and is seeking his own place in the world. He has always been ‘different’, and although he has learned (for the most part) to contain his instinctive impulses, he is becoming increasingly desperate to find more people like himself, somewhere he can belong in a world he simply doesn’t understand. Although he meets several people who accept him as he is, for various reasons their refuge is short-lived and instead his life is manipulated by people he knows he cannot trust yet still cannot evade. After being used to carry drugs to France, Ben finds himself in Brazil where he appears to be a highly sought prize by scientists at a local research centre, but also ever closer to the promise of more ‘people like him’…

THOUGHTS:  Ben in the world is a different Ben to the one introduced in The Fifth Child.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

DATE FINISHED: March 11th, 2011

RATED: *** (3.5)

SYNOPSIS: When 15 year old Christopher discovers his neighbour’s dog, killed with a garden fork, he begins an investigation to uncover the culprit. Instead, he accidentally uncovers family secrets which have been kept from him & turn his ordered life upside down. Christopher is highly intelligent but has an inability to read emotions, so the story (told in the first person) is peppered with his theories & favourite diversions as well as numerous misunderstandings.

THOUGHTS: