The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Late one night, Christopher comes across his neighbor's poodle, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork. Wellington's owner finds him cradling her dead dog in his arms, and has him arrested. After spending a night in jail, Christopher resolves--against the objection of his father and neighbors--to discover just who has murdered Wellington. He is encouraged by Siobhan, a social worker at his school, to write a book about his investigations, and the result--quirkily illustrated, with each chapter given its own prime number--is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Haddon's novel is a startling performance. This is the sort of book that could turn condescending, or exploitative, or overly sentimental, or grossly tasteless very easily, but Haddon navigates those dangers with a sureness of touch that is extremely rare among first-time novelists. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is original, clever, and genuinely moving: this one is a must-read. --Jack Illingworth, Amazon.ca

Product Description
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.

This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.

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Narrated by a fifteen-year-old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions.

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order, and predictability shelter him from the messy, wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.

Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher's mind.

And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon's choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotion. The effect is dazzling, making for a novel that is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing is a mind that perceives the world literally.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of the freshest debuts in years: a comedy, a heartbreaker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.

"Mark Haddon's portrayal of an emotionally dissociated mind is a superb achievement. He is a wise and bleakly funny writer with rare gifts of empathy."
   IAN McEWAN, AUTHOR OF ATONEMENT AND AMSTERDAM

"I have never read anything quite like Mark Haddon's funny and agonizingly honest book, or encountered a narrator more vivid and memorable. I advise you to buy two copies; you won't want to lend yours out."
   ARTHUR GOLDEN, AUTHOR OF MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

"The Curious Incident brims with imagination, empathy, and vision -- plus it's a lot of fun to read."
   MYLA GOLDBERG, AUTHOR OF BEE SEASON

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How does the autistic mind work (paraphrased/enhanced/interpreted from Haddon's book)?

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Non-Autistic Joe:

It is Monday morning and Joe awakens to find it raining and cold outside. As Joe prepares breakfast, he feels a sense of angst because the weather has already predetermined his day's destiny. Backing out of the driveway, Joe initiates the windshield-wipers, turns on the car defrost and breathes out a moan of contention because he knows he is going to have a bad day.

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Autistic Christopher:

On the bus ride to school, Christopher starts counting consecutive automobiles. If he sees 4 yellow cars in a row, he knows he is going to have a black day. However, if he encounters 4 red cars in a row, he knows he will experience a good day yet if he sees 3 red cards in a row, he will have quite a good day. Five red cars in a row will provide Christopher with a super good day. Also, Christopher will never eat food that is yellow or brown.

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Explanation:

The non-autistic mind uses emotions and feelings to predict (along with order and logic). The autistic mind can only use order and logic to make decisions. Non-autistic people regard Christopher's way of predicting good and bad days as illogical even if it does follow some strange order. On the other hand, how does basing good and bad days on the weather end up being more logical than the decision to base good and bad days on the color of consecutive cars?

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Non-Autistic Joe:

Joe's bedroom reflects his personality yet he constantly changes furniture and wall hangings to reflect his current interests. When Joe goes on vacation, he finds it refreshing to encounter new situations, new places and new people. On a recent vacation to South Carolina, Joe sat out on the porch of a civil-war era Bed and Breakfast and reflected on the God given wonders of the world.

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Autistic Christopher:

Christopher's bedroom has never changed since he was an infant. If his Mom cleans the room and moves a poster one millimeter, Christopher is forced to crouch down on the floor and moan for the loss of order to his world. Christopher hates Paris because it contains too much stimuli in the form of new buildings, new people, posters, signs, etc. This overwhelming influx of stimuli drives him almost mad with pain and angst. Christopher?'s only recourse is to crouch into a fetal position and to moan or scream. Nothing about this new place can be credited to God because the autistic mind won't comprehend things that can't be seen. All entities must be tangible. The idea of God is problematical for the autistic mind.
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Autistic Phenomenon (Christopher likes maths):

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Perhaps my favorite component of Mark Haddon's book dealt with the numerous references to mathematical algorithms, formulas, logic and computations. I just might have to put this book on a required reading list for my high school math students. Autistic minds do tend to have certain strengths and anomalies despite perceived deficits. Many autistic individuals possess math brilliance, musical prowess or scientific expertise. Christopher was gifted in "maths" and the book played homage to this unique talent. As a math geek, I was thrilled by the book's inclusion of the Pythagorean Theorem, The Monty Hall Problem, Statistical Analysis, Mapping Algorithms, Game Theory, Relativity, Tessellations, Proofs and Mental Math Algorithms. I have never encountered so many math applications in a pleasure book before in my life.

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Summary:

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Most of you know that I write reviews for the sheer cathartic release it provides me. However, I must go out on a limb (by the way, you can't use metaphors with autistic individuals), and implore you to find this book and read it with gusto over the summer. You will find it rewarding, entertaining and educational. If any of you know anybody dealing with autistic relatives or friends, please tell them of this book. It offers enough insight to make it a must read for anybody dealing directly with autism. Additionally, Christopher's detective work uncovered more than the culprit of a dog homicide; it unleashed raw emotion mainly because the young author was unable to express any of his own. I was moved to tears of laughter and heartbreak while I remained glued to every single word on every single page of this 226-page masterpiece. This is my favorite book of all time. Bravo Mark Haddon!

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My Overwhelming Grade: A+++


A Great Novel: Here's Why   May 18, 2004
73 out of 80 found this review helpful

Christopher is a fifteen-year-old, mildly autistic boy who lives with his father in Swindon, a small town about a hundred miles outside London. His mother has passed away several years ago of cancer, so it's just Christopher and his father. During the days, Christopher attends a "special needs" school, where lessons include not only the three R's, but also tips on dealing with strangers and decoding facial expressions (Christopher can recognize happy and sad faces, but more complicated faces give him trouble). For a project, Christopher's teacher tells him to write a book about himself. Adding his own individual touches along the way (a math prodigy, the boy numbers his chapters not 1, 2, 3, but as prime numbers in ascending order), and peppering the text with illustrative tables and drawings, Christopher embarks on a detective story about Mrs. Shears's dog, stabbed to death in her yard with a garden fork.

Christopher's purpose in writing his book is to emulate his hero, Sherlock Holmes (whose logical mind he greatly admires), and solve the case. But his investigations unearth more about the relationships between his family and his neighbors than about the identity of the dog's killer. Unable to decode sarcasm, jokes, or figures of speech (he calls them all "lies," since they aren't the truth), Christopher faithfully notes down his conversations and observations; though the reader, able to read between the lines, will guess the truth fairly quickly, Christopher's inability to understand social cues makes his struggle for answers all the more affecting.

Constantly bewildered by the (to him) incomprehensible behavior of those around him, Christopher resembles nothing so much as a human plunked down on a distant planet, trying desperately to figure out how to interpret the language and behavior of an alien species. And, in a way, many of Christopher's conclusions and actions make logical sense; but because he lacks a normal person's ability to make intuitive connections or understand the unspoken, Christopher has to rely on the imperfect set of rules he's learned about human behavior. Which is not to say Christopher can't also be infuriating, with his startling rigidity and resistance to change; he's prone to loss of bladder control and groaning fits when confused or scared by his surroundings - which is rather often. Nevertheless, he's deeply sympathetic and intensely believable, even if (like me) you've never met an autistic person before.

Other characters, such as Christopher's father and bereaved dog-owner Mrs. Shears, are realistically flawed and very convincing. They're not saints, by any means; Christopher's father tries hard to be patient, but can't control his frustration and anger, and all too often takes it out on his unresisting son. Mrs. Shears, for her part, is icily distant to Christopher. At first we assume that it's because of his insensitive poking into the death of her pet, but as the story progresses, we learn that her hostility stems from other, understandable (though not very noble) reasons. Obviously, Christopher's not responsible for his condition, and obviously he wouldn't have chosen to be as he is; but even though he can't help it, the boy is a heavy burden to those who must care for him, and frequent flare-ups of resentment and bitterness keep the story well away from saccharine TV-movie territory.

Haddon is a subtle and sensitive writer, leaving it to us to draw the conclusions that Christopher can't. His precise and careful prose reveal just enough to keep us a step ahead of Christopher - and give us an ominous sense of dark revelations waiting in the wings - while retaining a suspenseful mood throughout the narrative. In the end, though, the only mystery here is one that's beyond Christopher's, or anyone's, power to solve: how people can be so brutal, violent, and cruel to each other in the name of love. Along with this great novel, I'd like to recommend another Amazon quick-pick curiosity -------------------------> The Losers Club by Richard Perez


You've read nothing like this before!   April 30, 2004
Theresa W (mi, usa)
70 out of 83 found this review helpful

This book will knock your socks off! I guarentee you've never read anything like this before. Christopher gives Rain Man a run for his money!

Mark Haddon has done a superb job of creating the character of Autistic Christopher. What's more, as you start reading, he's not a character any longer, he's real...In this book Christopher has found his neighbor's dog murdered, so he decides to play detective, like his idol Sherlock Holmes, and find out who killed him. So begins the journey, which actually leads into ta much larger adventure, as Christopher begins to uncover that things in his life are not as they seem. You see, Christopher may be autistic, but he's a wiz at math and science and he's also unusually perceptive. The way Haddon goes through Chris's thought process and daily activities is pure genius. And to add depth to the story, I found his parents & some of the other characters in this book, also very "real". There aren't any perfect people in this book, this is real life.

I sincerely recommend this book to you. It's a quick read at only 220 pages, and the wit at which Haddon writes, makes those pages fly by. Very rarely does a book make me laugh out-loud, and this book did that several times. Bravo!


Unique Perspective Saves Ho-Hum Novel   June 7, 2004
Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA)
57 out of 65 found this review helpful

The most interesting aspect of this novel is that it is told from the perspective of Christopher, a 15-year-old autistic boy. You will be intrigued by how his life is ruled by logic and order, but saddened by the lack of emotion and human contact he allows.

The story begins when he discovers the body of a neighbor's dog impaled on a garden fork. He cradles Wellington and is mistaken for the killer by the dog's owner. After a harrowing night in jail, his social worker suggests he write his experiences in a journal, which becomes this book. At times heart-rending (discovering letters from his mother) and at times tedious (an especially detailed trip to London) this book does give readers an insight into the mind of an autistic person they have perhaps not had before. Christopher is exceptionally gifted in math and some of the math puzzles will be a bit overwhelming yet interesting.

The mystery of the dog's death is solved long before the end of the book, allowing the last quarter of the novel to be rather flat and anti-climatic. However, if you're looking for something with a different slant and completely out-of-the-ordinary, this may be enjoyable for you.