The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night- Time – Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night- Time - Mark Haddon
Top 100 Book:: Number 59
Star Rating: **** 1/2
Quick Review::
Meet Christopher Boone, a 15 year old boy living in Swindon with Asperger’s syndrome. One day he discovers the neighbour’s dog Wellington has been murdered with a garden fork and he makes it his mission to discover the murderer.
Described as a murder mystery novel with a difference Christopher opens a can of worms that will transform his life, and affect all of those around him. An award winning novel by Mark Haddon that is a real pleasure to read.
Detailed Review:: *SLIGHT PLOT SPOILERS*
I showed this book to my dad and he thought it was written by a 10 year old. A bit of a weird sentence to open with but it’s true. I can only compare the style of this book to an Adrian Mole book. Christopher Boone is an exceptionally bright boy. He deals well with numbers, patterns and equations and frequently uses them throughout the book. He doesn’t like people, being touched, the colours brown and yellow or his food touching. Even though he is a fictional character he seems incredibly real, nothing seems exaggerated and you genuinely empathise with him.
As I mentioned in the quick review the main basis of this book is finding out who murdered his neighbours dog Wellington. He does this against the wishes of his father who he lives with in Swindon, along with his pet rat Toby. We are led to believe that Chris’s mother died some time earlier from a heart attack. The hunt for the murderer takes an unexpected turn when Christopher accidentally stumbles across a massive secret that has been kept hidden from him.
I did find myself at times getting frustrated with Christopher, he does not deal well with people, not understanding emotions and so he quite often screams, kicks and hits and I did find myself feeling a bit disturbed by it at times. I found a lot of the book funny, but underlying the comedy is a very serious message about understanding people with such issues and that became more and more prominent as the book progressed.
You will be pleased to know there is a happy ending, all ends well with Christopher Boone and I can understand how this book made it to the middle of the top 100 books. It is a very unique style of book. It isn’t just a journal of one boy’s thoughts, a lot of time and effort has gone into making this book feel like it has been written by a 15 year old boy suffering from Asperger’s syndrome. I don’t know much about Mark Haddon’s background so I am not sure if this is a personal issue but it is very cleverly written.
So you will guess correctly that I recommend this book to you all. It is a very easy to read book, even with all the maths! Christopher Boone is a very likeable character that is almost sad to remember he isn’t a real boy.
August 10th, 2009 - 17:57
Yes, I read it a fair while back now, but it was a very good book.
I think my favourite thing about it was the viewpoint, it made the story both feel very real and sypathetic. I suspect that told at a distance the story would have felt cloying and false.