Sunday 18 December 2011

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


Publishers: Vintage

Pages: 224

Main Characters:

Christopher Boone.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is the award winning book by the brilliant British author Mark Haddon. The story follows Christopher Boone, a 15 year old boy from Swindon, England. Christopher is every different to many boys his age, he has a love for Maths, but is not very good with social situations (he possibly has Autism or Asperger’s syndrome).
Christopher’s lives with his father Ed as his mother died two years before. They live in a quiet sub-urban street. One night, during one of Christopher’s mid-night strolls, he comes across the corpse of his neighbour’s dog, Wellington with a pitch fork sticking out of it. This prompts Christopher into looking into the murder of Wellington, as he is a big fan of Sherlock Holmes. During his investigation Christopher finds out secrets about his own mother and fathers relationship, and learns that his quiet sub-urban street is not so quiet. Taking Christopher on a journey to London in which he has to face his fears of been in social situations like taking a train and been in a crowd.
This was a brilliant book. Haddon does an extremely good job of portraying the world through the eyes of someone who is Autistic or has Asperger’s. The plot is very gripping as you first want to find out who murdered the dog, but then as the story goes on, you want to know about the secrets that Christopher’s street holds. The book is also funny in places where Christopher makes these social mistakes like punching a police officer, but at the same time is quite sad because Christopher does not understand why he gets into trouble for it because of his outlook on the world.
This was a great book, I’d recommend it to anyone. It may appeal to people who have an interest in psychology as it gives an insight into the mind of someone who has Autism or Asperger’s. I would also suggest it to any fans of Nick Hornby as it is written in a similar style.

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