Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Doubleday © 2003, 240 pages [amazon]

Fifteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone, the narrator of Mark Haddon's Holmesian-titled Curious Incident, comes upon his neighbor's dog late one night lying dead in its yard, run through with a pitchfork. After hugging the dog for precisely four minutes, and after being accused of the animal's murder by its distraught, pajama'd owner, Christopher determines to investigate the mystery of the canicide.  What makes this task particularly challenging, however, and what sets this book apart, is that Christopher is autistic. Though he is able to communicate and he is unusually intelligent, Christopher's disorder renders simple activities--talking to strangers, traveling  by public transportation--often prohibitively difficult. (Christopher cannot interpret facial expressions well, he cannot abide being touched, and his moods are governed by the colors of the cars he sees en route to school. But he excels at math and science and can, for example, rattle off a list of prime numbers up to 7,057.)

After hugging the dog for precisely four minutes, and after being accused of the animal's murder by its distraught, pajama'd owner, Christopher determines to investigate the mystery of the canicide.In addition to undertaking to solve the dog's murder, Christopher writes down the story of his investigation in the form of a novel--The Curious Incident itself--a book whose spare but highly readable prose ends up being about far more than a single dog's death. In passages alternating between real-life events and Christopher's scientific and mathematical musings, the curious incident of the pitchfork-pierced dog is explained, further deceptions are revealed, and the reader is introduced to an extraordinary mind.

Tags: book reviews, books, Mark Haddon

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Comments

[Tom]

1.

I loved this book and can heartily recommend it. Beth enjoyed it also. This is one of those rare books that is actually worth re-reading.