Book Review | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Rating

3 stars – an interesting insight into Asperger’s Syndrome – but the bad language lets it down

Description

Narrated by a fifteen-year-old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions.

Why did you choose to read this book?

It’s been sitting on my book case for many months now – but a friend recommend I read it so I dusted off the cover and settled down…

The Book Review

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery narrated by 15 year old Christopher Boone. I have to admit that before reading this book I didn’t know a lot about Asperger’s Syndrome – so I had to look it up online:

Hans Asperger labeled this disorder “Autistic Psychopathy” in 1944, and the cause is still unknown. There is a possible relation to autistic disorder (autism). Some researchers believe that Asperger syndrome is simply a mild form of autism.

The child with Asperger shows below-average nonverbal communication gestures, fails to develop peer relationships, has an inability to express pleasure in other people’s happiness, and lacks the ability to reciprocate emotionally in normal social interactions. The condition appears to be more common in boys than in girls. There are likely genetic factors, but some theories suggest a prenatal infection may be to blame.

While people with Asperger syndrome are frequently socially inept, many have above-average intelligence, and they may excel in fields like computer programming and science. There is no delay in cognitive development, in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, or in curiosity about the environment. Generally, there is no language development delay.

The book is well written and gives an insight into how people with this Syndrome think and react to the wider world. The murder mystery that Christopher sets out to solve leads him to learn some scary things about his family and the way he is treated by his father. It also prompts him to take a journey from Swindon to London – something most of us would find quite simple but to Christopher is a mammoth and at times terrifying task.

I enjoyed this book and liked the way Haddon makes it sound like a book narrated by the main character right down to the illustrations. However, I did not appreciate the continuous bad language from the adult characters in the book – I can’t quite believe this was awarded the Guardian’s Children Fiction prize for that reason. I don’t have an issue with swearing – but in this case it really added nothing to the story at all and became quite offensive at times.

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	Title: Publisher: Vintage Average review rating:   List Price: $14.00 Sale Price: $4.99 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Free Shipping Available
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Got what I ordered   Review Date: September 1, 2010 Reviewer: erinsumpter, Again - I got exactly what I ordered but it took alot longer than I thought it would. Came before the expected delivery date but it took about 2 weeks. Most everything else I've ever ordered from Amazon has come within a week. Insightful little book   Review Date: August 31, 2010 Reviewer: Mark Buckley, High Point NC I enjoyed this journey into the mind of an autistic, brilliant but quirky young man. It was interesting, enlightening and just plain fun to read. Excellent read. Great Book   Review Date: August 23, 2010 Reviewer: avidreader, As a teacher of autistic children, I appreciated the author's perspective. I recommend it! don't recommend   Review Date: August 23, 2010 Reviewer: Jay, "There was a garden fork sticking out of the dog." The reader of 'the curious incident of the dog in the night-time' by Mark Haddon is drawn into the mystery quickly. However, I don't recommend this novel. Though it is unique, it has an odd writing style and few, if any, likable characters. The author chose an unusual style of writing for the book. It was written from the point of view of the autistic main character, Christopher. For example, the chapters were numbered using only prime numbers because Christopher prefers them. At times, however, the book becomes confusing because of this perspective. At one point, the story leaped away from the murder mystery into an explanation of a math problem. I didn't like how often the book digressed from the mystery. I understand why the author wrote like this, but overall, I found it distracting. In most gripping books after a couple chapters I find that I like one character more than the others. This was not the case when I was reading this book. None of the characters gave me a reason to like them. I found the main character annoying and I struggled to relate to him. Personally, I don't like math and most of the time he obsessed about it. I did enjoy how unique the book was. However, it is not a book I can recommend. Painfully boring, mildly annoying, and empty.   Review Date: August 22, 2010 Reviewer: Tara Candela, USA I had to force myself to finish this book. I'm not at all certain what Haddon was trying to do with this story or this main character. I felt as though the story was told by an annoying, whiny, 10-year-old. I've not had experience with autistic children, but this cannot be the best example. Think Kevin from Parenthood crying over his lost retainer and this about sums up the main character, Christopher-- with one exception: unlike Kevin, Christopher is a math genius. The best parts of the book were the various references to math and logic problems (e.g., reference to Marilyn Vos Savant's column in Parade magazine explaining The Monty Hall Problem), and I'd rather get those from a math and logic game book. In the end, I did not care about Christopher, the dead dog, Toby (Christopher's pet rat), his mother, his father, or any of the other empty characters. Blah!
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