The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Wow, I just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. It’s one of those books that uncannily creates a narrator whose voice is so compelling that you question whether or not he/she is really fictional. In this case, it’s a 15-year-old autistic boy named Christopher, who sets out to find the murderer of a neighborhood dog, a quest that has very personal ramifications.
I once read that the Dude in The Big Liebowski was created to be an unlikely detective, a man incapable of understanding the complexities of the mystery he was trying to solve. Christopher, I must say, is considerably less equipped than the Dude.
I don’t want to get into too much detail about the plot of the book, because there are a lot of surprises and twists, and if I even hint about them, I’ll ruin it. But I will say that I now know much more about autism than I ever thought I would, and Haddon’s deft use of language really gets across the confusion autistics feel when confronted with a world they simply aren’t capable of understanding. Simple things, like finding a new place, take on a tremendous mathematical complexity for Christopher. Yet, there are times when he is surprisingly normal, at least in his feelings and his reactions, but he doesn’t know how to interpret his feelings.
To sum things up, I’m glad to say that the hype about this book is true — it really is a fantastic read, and not what I expected.
Book Reviews | jeff | 22 June 2006 |
