The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time:
by Mark Haddon
The story takes place in a town a few hours north of London. It starts out with a 15 year old boy named Christopher John Francis Boone discovering, in his neighbor’s yard, her poodle Wellington dead with a garden fork sticking out of him. It is midnight. Christopher has trouble sleeping. He tells the story of how he planned to solve the murder of Wellington, but learns more about the people around him. He knows all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057. He has trouble with knowing how he feels, he has trouble understanding his emotions as well those of other people. He also cannot deal with people yelling, or metaphors. He does not understand jokes and hates being touched. Christopher also cannot lie. He is brilliant at math and yet will curl up in a ball if you ask him too many questions. He is autistic.
He begins his investigation about the death of the dog by questioning his neighbors. He lives with his father only because his mother is dead. But when his dad finds out that Christopher has been looking into who killed the neighbor’s dog, he flies into a rage. His dad takes the notebook Chistopher has been using in his investigation and hides it in his room.
This doesn’t stop Christopher. When his father is at work, he sneaks into his room and rifles through his dad’s dresser and closet. He not only finds his notebook, but he finds out what really happened to his mother. It changes his entire world view, and he becomes enraged and confronts his dad, who comes clean and then tells him who really killed the neighbor’s dog.
The last part of the book is about Christopher running away. He tries to get to London, and it is alarming to read because he is so frightened and so unable to navigate trains and subways. This is an interesting and frustrating book to read. On the one hand I was sad and yet hopeful for Christopher and angry at his parents’ inability to deal with him, though they really tried. On the other hand, Christopher could be very, very annoying. I get that he couldn’t help it, but his quirks were not always presented sympathetically. I imagine that is very realistic of these types of situations.
I found this to be interesting, funny and absorbing. Its different type of story, but I would recommend you read it if you like quirky novels.