Leaving Home by Mark Haddon review blistering memoir of a loveless childhood

"Attempting a psychological analysis of a literary work is a fool's errand, for obvious reasons: you're trying to assess the inside of the writer's head from the inside of your own, using the inherently treacherous medium of make-believe. And the aim on their part, of course, is always to beguile, and often to deceive. And yet the temptation is sometimes too great to resist."

"Mark Haddon, whose blistering memoir details a mainly miserable and loveless childhood and an adulthood studded with significant hurdles, hit the literary jackpot with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in 2003. In it, a teenage protagonist who struggles to communicate with the world around him uncovers a world of lying adults — most egregiously, he has been told his mother has died, rather than absconded with the nextdoor neighbour — and runs away from home."

"A more recent novel, The Porpoise, opens with a fatal air crash before morphing into a reworking of Pericles; in Leaving Home, we discover that Haddon is terrified of flying. We also learn that he borrowed heavily from childhood holidays in Brighton to create the atmosphere and texture for his story The Pier Falls, a merciless, documentary-style narration of a cataclysmic seaside disaster."

Mark Haddon experienced a mainly miserable, loveless childhood and an adulthood with significant hurdles. He achieved major success with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, featuring a teenage protagonist who struggles to communicate, uncovers adult deceit, and runs away. The Porpoise begins with a fatal air crash and reworks Pericles; Leaving Home reveals a fear of flying. The Pier Falls draws on Brighton holidays to render a merciless, documentary-style seaside disaster. Haddon's raw upbringing—marked by emotional absence and a mother's withdrawal—supplies recurring material. His work alternates between plain reportage and mythic flights of fancy, emphasizing vivid images and numerous illustrations.

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