A Super Good Read. (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: Adult Edition - Mark Haddon)

Member Name: Rhiana

Product:	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: Adult Edition - Mark Haddon
Date:	26/07/09 (143 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fascinating, original, unputdownable

Disadvantages: wierd ' on purpose' spelling mistakes were annoying and some discrepencies

This is one of those books I had heard of and vaguely knew what it was about. However I had never been curious enough to obtain and read it. That is until I received a swap request for a completely unwanted book on readitswapit.co.uk. I would have been prepared to swap for almost anything, and when I saw this on the requesters own list thought I'd give it a go. If I didn't like it, I knew it would at least be a better addition to my own swap list than the one I'd exchanged it for!

~ Plot ~

Christopher Boone is 15 years 3 months and 2 days. He lives in Swindon with his father and his pet rat. He hates being touched, the colours brown and yellow and strangers. He loves Maths and the truth. He decides how his day will be depending on how many cars of a certain colour he sees in a row. 4 yellow cars are a black day, while 5 red cars are a super good day. He also has aspergers syndrome.

One night Christopher discovers a neighbours dog murdered by a pitchfork. He sets out to discover who murdered Wellington and write a murder mystery along the way. His investigation however turns up more than the curious incident of the dog in the night, and turns his world upside down.

~ My Review ~

Considering I had never had any great interest in reading this book I actually found it unputdownable and am so glad I did finally read this book.

The first thing I noticed about the book is that it starts with chapter two. This caused me some confusion for a few seconds and I flicked back through the first couple of pages convinced I had missed something. I quickly realised that this is deliberate though, as Christopher is a genius mathemetician and in recognition of this fact the chapters follow prime numbers. Mathematics and patterns are a large theme throughout the book, and despite being completely hopeless at maths myself, found his comparisons between Mathematical formula's and life fascinating. The book is littered with diagrams and small graphs to illustrate his pondering, but don't let this put you off as I found it charming rather than confusing or annoying.

Christopher is a fascinating character. I know very little about Aspergers syndrome, but found the way in which the author portrayed Christopher to be endearing and thought provoking. The book is told in the first person from Christopher, and really is believable as this character telling the story. The style is very different to usual books, as Christopher sees the world in black or white and his narrative is as he sees it, as it is and without emotional or flowery descriptions.

While the synopsis and title of the book set this book as a murder mystery, it becomes clear around a third of the way through that the murder of the dog is just a catalyst for a chain of events which delve into his family secrets and how he deals with such revelations. I found myself embroiled in a story I was not expecting at all and constantly surprised and intrigued. The events within the book are all the more intriguing reading from Christopher's perspective, making them even more sad, inspiring, funny and somehow real.

The main theme of the book is that Christopher suffers Aspergers syndrome. While I am not sure I learned anything about the syndrome itself, I really did feel like I had an insight into how it may affect a person. Rather than being a story about a boy with aspergers and a murdered dog, the book is really about family and people and how their irrational and emotional side makes them behave. Even when they believe they are doing the right thing, it questions the reasoning behind this. Examining this behaviour from an aspergers sufferer makes the reader look on actions and behavior in a different light. The book did make me think about how we treat and judge those who think and behave differently, and I felt very compassionate towards Christopher, and also his family who may not always make the best decisions, make the ones they believe to be right at the time. Perhaps because of Christopher's basic and direct observations, I felt even more empathy with his Mother and Father than I would have ordininarilly.

While I really did enjoy the book, I do have some small criticisms. One is that there are some inconstancies which I picked up on. One such is that Christopher writes that he can only picture himself somewhere he has been, and therefore can not imagine or dream something that is unlikely to happen, unlike the majority of people. Yet several times Christopher does imagine as a way of escape and while I wasn't annoyed by this discrepancy I did notice it enough to question it.

Another mild annoyance I found within the book is in some letters written to Christopher from an adult. For some unknown reason, the author decided this adult could not spell and wrote their mistakes as kichen, timetabel, woodden and differant. There's no apparent reason WHY this person wouldn't be able to spell such words, and the mistakes seemed so obvious to me. It reminded me of when I was around fourteen at school, and actually wanted to be dropped down a grade a school to be in the same class as my best friend, and so would write silly and phoney mistakes (like fone). This just seemed a bit silly and unnecessary, and while didn't really detract from the story, it did quite annoy me.

I have noticed that this book comes in an adult and children's edition. I have read the adults, and have no idea what the difference actually is. My edition contains some swearing, violence and mentions drug use, however I am happy enough to pass it on to my 13 year old son. In fact he has read the first 3 chapters tonight and was engrossed. A huge achievement for a boy who hates reading. I found the book very easy to read apart from some of the mathematical equations, which were fascinating and mind blowing, although I think even if like me they go right over your head, you can either skim read them, or just admire them, without it spoiling the overall story.

~ Conclusion ~

I would recommend this book to others. It was completely different to how I expected it to be, and I was engrossed throughout. Christopher is a fantastically well written character and I absolutly adored him. It is completely original and made me look at things from a completely different perspective.

I think that if you are looking for a book to learn about aspergers syndrome or autism, then this isn't really what the book is about. It's about one boy and his story who happens to have aspergers and is told in his way. What I do feel the book does is make the reader view situations in a completely different way to what they are used to, and it made me think about how we perceive others who do not act the way we expect. It is also a style of writing and perspective I have never come across before and found it extremely interesting, fresh and thought provoking.

This book is neither a murder mystery or a book about aspergers, which is what I originally thought, and what the synopsis on the back lead me to believe. It's a story about people, with a different perspective, which highlights the faults we so easily disguise and excuse amongst emotion and irrationality, and instead lays them bare for what they really are.

~ Other Information ~

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time by Mark Haddon
ISBN 0-099-45025-9
RRP £6.99
Published in 2004 by Random House
272 pages.

Summary: It only begins with a dog in the night, the real mysteries are in your own house.