A Curious Book About a Boy and a Dead Dog (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon)

Member Name: Mauri

Product:	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Date:	10/10/07 (840 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Intriguing vision of an unusual mind

Disadvantages: Lack of emotional connection

The idea of the 'modern' novel has always been that it deals with more than just a story it tries to enter in to the consciousness of the narrator or the characters to give the reader an insight in to their thoughts and emotions. Such 'modern' novels have been around a surprisingly long time, we can go back to such classics as 'Crime and Punishment' by Dostoevsky or 'Hunger' by Knut Hamsun to see how the authors have in these examples described the disturbed minds of the central characters; in one case tortured by guilt and in the latter by physical distress. 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' by Mark Haddon follows this tradition but in an unusual way in that the central character, the readers 'eyes' to the unfolding events are those of Christopher a 15 year old boy living with Autism more specifically Asperger syndrome.

The story itself is very slight. Christopher one morning leaves his house and discoveres the body of his neighbours dog impaled to the front lawn of his neighbour's garden with a pitchfork. Christopher seems emotionally unaffected by the discovery but is keen to work out what has happened. Because of his particular kind of autism his mind is incredibly able to work out logical processes. He is brilliant at maths and problem solving and loves detective stories so it is only natural to him to try and solve the murder of the dog. Unfortunately his attempts to do so land him in trouble with the police and his father and lead him to make several unexpected discoveries about his dead mother.

Hadden attempts to bring out the personality and the thought process of the young boy by having the boy tell the story in the form of a book he has written including diagrams and cartoon to illustrate some of the mathematical concepts that the boy's mind is fascinated by.
In this regard the book reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut's brilliant 60's novel 'Breakfast of Champions' which also used cartoon and sketched widely interspersed throughout the text.

The story is told is a very monotone style mimicking the thoughts of the boy. There is little in the way of perception in the writing and the reader has to slowly unravel the events and their emotional impact by reading into the dialogue and the simple descriptions the feelings that the narrator cannot open himself to. For me this was an intriguing and at the same time frustrating aspect of the novel. The one dimensional thought process that is described in Christopher's own voice is difficult to get used to and it does make you realise how frustrating in can be to deal with. Christopher is loved by his father but it is difficult for him to show this, physical contact has to be kept to a minimum since Christopher cannot cope being touched and will become violent if he is put into a position whereby his mind cannot cope with the complexity of the world outside.

Mark Haddon totally succeeds in giving the reader a glimpse of what it is like to be living with this form of autism both from the part of the individual affected but also from those around him. Paradoxically this is also the aspect that I had most difficulty with and partly why I did not rate the book as highly as many have. I found that Christopher's lack of understanding of the emotional turmoil that was present around him and his inability to interact meaningfully with it proved for me a barrier in empathising with him or the story. Maybe this is a consequence of writing the story in this way, on one hand it does allow the reader to understand the world from Christopher's point of view but at the same time it doesn't allow the emotional connection between the main character and reader to be realised and this is what a truly successful novel needs.

One other failing in the way the book is written is that the narrator is unable to describe the other characters as fully rounded individuals, indeed only the father is dealt with in any depth but even here we arrive at an understanding by reading between the lines and filling in the blanks of what Christopher tells us. This creates a very blinkered view of the world and again this might be the point but the drawback is once again a lack of emotional connection with any of the supporting characters.

One other intriguing aspect of the book is the use of mathematical problems by Christopher to illustrate certain aspects of what is going on in his life. One of the effects of the type of autism that he lives with is an enhanced ability for logical thought process exemplified by his prodigious ability in Mathematics, which had become a key part of his life. I found the maths puzzles intriguing even if some were beyond me and I can imagine that this aspect of the story would appeal to many younger (male) readers. Indeed the format, the style and the length (224 pages) make this book an easy read for most young adult readers 11+ years.

Overall I found the book a worthy attempt at chronicling the growing pains of a young teenager in the same way that 'Catcher in the Rye' or 'Vernon God Little' (a competitor to this book in the Mann/Booker prize of that year) have also done. Of course the inclusion of autism in to the story changes the premise somewhat since the narrator's viewpoint on the surface becomes alien to most readers. However this is still the story of a young man coming to terms in his own way with growing up in a dysfunctional family and the portrayal of this is just as valid and meaningful as that seen in those other novels.

Overall this is a book that is worth reading and although I don't have any knowledge of the condition described and very little of Autism in general it did feel believable to me and I felt that I had learnt something. The book's failings don't outweigh it merits but I did find myself unsatisfied at the end even though I had been educated.

'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' by Mark Haddon published in paperback (224 pages) ISBN-10: 0099450259/ISBN-13 : 978-0099450252 can be bought from Amazon.co.uk for £3.49 (+p&p) at the time this review was written.

Recommended.

© Mauri 2007

Summary: The growing pains of an autistic boy and his dysfunctional family