The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night-time

After last year’s miserable book blogging showing, I am determined this year to make book blogging a high priority. With that in mind, my first post of 2018 is a book review. I read The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night-time over the Christmas holidays, sharing the book with my daughter. I loved it, she didn’t – mainly because she couldn’t relate to the autistic boy who is the protagonist of the book.

About the Book

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. 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 to 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.

~ Synopsis from goodreads

My Review

In summary, I adored this book. There are a few reasons – personal and never discussed on the blog. Last year, my son was diagnosed with some sensory conditions that make it difficult for him to interact with other kids. The counselors we met don’t call it autism, as he’s pretty high-functioning, has met all milestones, and manages himself pretty well. He comes close to it because of sensitivities to sound, certain textures, and smells. He shares some characteristics with Christopher Boone from the novel (picky eating, dislike of crowds) but in a milder way.

Still, even though I knew this book was about an autistic boy, I didn’t get around to reading it. That is, until it came on Snubnose’s recommended reading list. She’s actually in a play where she plays the role of Christopher, and she wanted the book to help her understand more about the character. So, of course, I bought it, and of course, I read it first.

I went into this book expecting a bit more of a mystery. Initially, I was disappointed when the mystery is revealed in the middle of the book itself. And if you are looking out for a mystery novel, I would not recommend this book to you. It’s more of a character study (and a very empathetic one at that) into the thoughts and motivations of Christopher.

This is where the novel shines. Haddon perfectly depicts Christopher’s unusual behavior and the reasoning behind his idiosyncrasies. The plot isn’t much, but the struggles in Christopher’s mind give the book a certain tension, making even a simple rail journey from Swindon to London very interesting.

Also, because Christopher is the book’s narrator, we get an insight into his thought processes. He details small things (which a regular narrator might not do). He also seems to be a visual rather than a verbal thinker, as frequent illustrations are peppered throughout. Christopher’s interest in maths and physics is also reflected throughout the book. In some places, these details make the plot paralyzingly slow. My daughter thought so. She was also alarmed by Christopher carrying a Swiss army knife everywhere he went. There’s also a certain amount of bad language and references to sex that embarrassed Snubnose thoroughly. She plowed through and finished the book, but it won’t become one of her favorites.

She also didn’t particularly appreciate Christopher’s rather blunt way of communication:

Father was standing in the corridor. He held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan. I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs touch each other. We do this because sometimes Father wants to give me a hug, but I do not like hugging people, so we do this instead, and it means that he loves me.

I get where she’s coming from. The language does seem a bit too simple, but I felt it was the right touch given the nature of the book, and I was probably moved a lot more by his unemotional writing style than I would have been if this had been expressed differently.

I found myself in tears near the end of the book when Christopher achieved all that he had set out to do—investigate the mystery, travel on his own, and ace the A-levels. It was really heart-warming. In the end, he gains so much self-confidence when he realizes that he can do anything.

And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? And I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.

Overall, I loved this book. I loved how it depicted the world through the lens of a boy like Christopher. This is the first book I read that’s written from such a unique perspective, and I’d like to read more about autistic kids – fiction, nonfiction, whatever. Do you have any recommendations for me?