The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | Mark Haddon

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | Mark Haddon | Amazing

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The Curious Incide...

	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon Vintage, 2004 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 1455 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Sweet Read

I felt the book, written journal-style, with a Flowers for Algernon tone, was a sweet and a quick read. It does get a bit wordy in a couple places, but it's towards the end and I felt safe skimming a couple sentences.

Amazing

Be careful! The emotional impact of this story sneaks up on you. Told from the point of view of 15-year-old, autistic Christopher Boone, Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time leads you to believe that it is going to be a mystery when Christopher decides to investigate the murder of his neighbor's dog, Wellington, who he finds dead with a pitchfork through his side. What happens beyond this plot point is an amazing study into the needs and struggles of those who suffer from "special needs" and their families.

I want to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book, but the surprise wasn't necessarily pleasant. Haddon has created an amazing book that has an unbelievable emotional pull that will leave you both shocked and sympathetic for the characters. It is a fast read, but very well crafted.

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Fun to live inside someone else's head for a while

This book was interesting in how the mystery was spun out by living in another persons head for a while. I would like to have a classroom set of this book because it would be educational as far as being intrigued and appreciative of the different kinds of thinking, The math in the book was fun to see how it was used to calmed the main character Christopher. It was fun to see how confusing facial expressions could be to Christopher also.

It's fun when a book takes you to a different time or place, but this time it took me to a different brain and it was a nice journey.

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Not a mystery

I enjoyed this book, and I appreciate that it was written from the perspective of an autistic child. If you are expecting a mystery, however, this is not one.

From someone who is autistic...

I doubt my review will be worth anything, what with there being 1,400-plus reviews already. But I thought I should tell of my opinion seeing as I am mildly autistic myself, & have interacted with other autistic beings from all across the spectrum.

I'm sure you already know what this book is focused on: a 15-year-old boy named Christopher, plagued by a case of autism more severe than my own, & he plays the literal-minded narrator. Indeed the author pulls very hard to make Christopher sound like an authentic autistic person, & I can't say he failed. This story is more about him than the murdered dog, his family's turmoil, anything.
& yet I had a very hard time liking Christopher. His character never shines a single moment of empathy for others. Very bluntly he tells his audience of the people surrounding him, but his voice holds such devoid distance as if these people are hollow shells not quite alive. At one point in the story, a torn person pleas for Christopher to hold their hand... just this once, & Christopher refuses apathically.
I strongly dislike being touched, however I will suck it up & allow myself to be touched or even reach out to hug someone if I feel they truly need it.
As much as I know that these are the lines that separate the mild from the severe cases, it still remains hard for me to feel for Christopher knowing that he cannot feel for others beyond himself. (On another note, some people with autism are known to feel physical pain with skin to skin contact. Christopher never mentions such a thing, so it seems clear that he `feels' like me when it comes to touching.)

Despite this stoic nature, the story unfolds in such a way that others' emotions bleed through the pages via bits of dialog & in their simple actions. The situation is a tender one & very raw at its root.
At the same time I found the other characters unlikable as well. While it becomes lucid later, Christ's father seems to cage his son, banning his curiosity. In a turning point of the mystery behind Wellington the poodle's murder, something harsh is revealed about the father that places him in a very ugly light.

- - spoiler - -
As for Christopher's estranged mother, let me spell for you a summary of her explanation letters: `I'm so sorry I had to leave you Christopher, but you must understand that you are an unbearable child. I hated my life & it was all your fault.' Not to mention the fact that she flatly abandoned him in the first place.

But all this ugliness makes for a very raw & potent read. Each of these characters in their flaws feels very real.
& the simplistic, blunt writing style itself feels very fresh & novel.

I just wish people would stop saying `this book is an insight into the autistic mind.'
This book is an insight into ONE autistic mind. We are each very different people. Just from this review you should be able to understand that.

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