The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Boston Globe called this book, "gloriously eccentric..." which is an inaccurate way to represent this story by Mark Haddon. If anything, Haddon enters the world of autism and demystifies it, making it less eccentric. We see the world through the eyes of fifteen year-old Christopher Boone, who abhors the color yellow, but calms himself by solving complicated math problems in his...more

The Boston Globe called this book, "gloriously eccentric..." which is an inaccurate way to represent this story by Mark Haddon. If anything, Haddon enters the world of autism and demystifies it, making it less eccentric. We see the world through the eyes of fifteen year-old Christopher Boone, who abhors the color yellow, but calms himself by solving complicated math problems in his head. The reader learns to re-calibrate his or her own emotional responses a la Christopher, for whom things hurt according to their logical content or lack thereof.This book has many strengths, and Christopher's father is perhaps one of the best examples of a sympathetic but highly flawed character. While Christopher is undoubtedly the book's protagonist, the non-autistic reader will more likely empathize with Christopher's father, who is capable of both great love and great destruction.Aside from Christopher's discussions with his therapist Siobhan, the book wisely veers away from preachy explanations about autism. Even the therapy sessions are more about interpersonal connection than outlining the intricacies of autism, and it is this that helps the reader to connect to Christopher in something other than sympathy. We engage with Christopher's world, not the world of autism...and this is right as autism spectrum disorders defy generalizations or easy categories.The end result, if anything, is that the eccentricity of general humanity is exposed. We become conscious of our everyday lack of logic. The novel is just as much about the human condition as the autistic condition.   hide

Christopher Boone likes night-time walks. On one of these walks, he discovers the body of his neighbor's dog pierced by a pitchfork. The death of the animal awakens Christopher's desire to investigate and solve the dog's hideous murder. Christopher's detective work drums up some interesting leads, not only about the dog, but also about some mysteries in...more

Christopher Boone likes night-time walks. On one of these walks, he discovers the body of his neighbor's dog pierced by a pitchfork. The death of the animal awakens Christopher's desire to investigate and solve the dog's hideous murder. Christopher's detective work drums up some interesting leads, not only about the dog, but also about some mysteries in Christopher's own life. In the end, Christopher will have to choose between the family he knows and his need for knowing the truth about the incident of the dog in the night-time. Mark Haddon's portrait of an autistic boy on a mission is well written, and perfectly told. The story, composed as a first-person narrative, expertly portrays the actions and mind set of a person living with autism. Haddon's complex storytelling may confuse some readers, but it is essential to building the foundation of Christopher's character. It helps the reader to understand the thought patterns autistic people. Haddon does a wonderful job weaving the chapters to create a compelling and surprising read. - 4 Stars - Reviewed by Leigh O'Donovan, Authors on the Rise Book Reviews   hide

Christopher Boone is a troubled young man. He has Asperger's Syndrome, which means he has no idea how to interact naturally with other people. He can't understand the intricacies of human behavior, even though he can count cubes in his head and has a perfect memory for any form of information. Christopher is obsessed with color and food, and has set rigid patterns for his life that are...more

Christopher Boone is a troubled young man. He has Asperger's Syndrome, which means he has no idea how to interact naturally with other people. He can't understand the intricacies of human behavior, even though he can count cubes in his head and has a perfect memory for any form of information. Christopher is obsessed with color and food, and has set rigid patterns for his life that are understandable only to himself. He lives with his father, who is just about able to handle the task of raising a developmentally disabled son, and attends a special school to try and learn to live in a world that scares and confuses him. And now he has a mystery to solve. His neighbor's dog has been murdered - stabbed with a pitchfork - and he's determined to find out who did it. He plans to use his reason and his logic to uncover the murderer. Unfortunately, by investigating the death of the dog, he uncovers darker, more disturbing mysteries emerge. Unraveling them will push him beyond the boundaries of his world.... It's a fascinating book, written from his perspective. All the chapters are numbered as primes, and he goes on interesting tangents on cosmology, number theory and population control, all the while narrating his attempts to make sense of what's happening around him. It's a quick, fun read - have fun.   hide

This was a very fast read and I really enjoyed it. This is a story about a 15 year old autistic boy who finds his neighbors dog dead in the middle of this night. He takes it upon himself to solve the mystery of who killed the dog and ends up solving a much bigger unanticipated mystery in addition. This is a heart warming story of the challenges austic people face and a rare insight into their...more

This was a very fast read and I really enjoyed it. This is a story about a 15 year old autistic boy who finds his neighbors dog dead in the middle of this night. He takes it upon himself to solve the mystery of who killed the dog and ends up solving a much bigger unanticipated mystery in addition. This is a heart warming story of the challenges austic people face and a rare insight into their world and way of thinking. What may seem totally irrational to the naked eye is likely in fact very logical to them. The language is so basic and thoroughly explained that in the beginning I thought I should be reading this with my 10 year old daughter. There are many complicated things that are explained so clearly and thoroughly, that I thought it might be a good book for her. However, as the story progressed, some of the topics got a lot more mature and I began to rethink that idea - maybe in a few years. There were many parts where I found myself chuckling at the way he looks at things. Most adults are so adept at putting spin on things, and so concerned about being politically correct and/or funny, that they don't even think about the things they say. To have someone take the ordinary things we say and make you look at them differently was a very charming side-effect of this story. I recommend this book for anyone over 15 simply for the fact that it's a quick and easy read that will have the wonderful affect of helping you see into the often hard to understand world of an autistic person and possibly be a little more compassionate when you interact with one.   hide

Christopher Boone, a 15 year old who has Asperger's Syndrome which is a condition similar to autism. He was a whiz at solving math problems and loved solving puzzles. For him, there was always an answer to every numeric problems unlike with real life problems. He had several personality problems like he doesn't want to be touched or even hugged. So his parents would just stretch out one...more

Christopher Boone, a 15 year old who has Asperger's Syndrome which is a condition similar to autism. He was a whiz at solving math problems and loved solving puzzles. For him, there was always an answer to every numeric problems unlike with real life problems. He had several personality problems like he doesn't want to be touched or even hugged. So his parents would just stretch out one hand and fingers as if to make a high five but it meant that his dad or mom loved him and he would extend his hand with fingers touching them to mean that he loves them too. He doesn't like the color brown or yellow for many reasons such as yellow meant custard, 2 yellow lines, 4 yellow cars meant a black day. He didn't want food touching one another in a plate or else he'd not eat them. He was a very observant boy and that he can remember a scene or a past with all the tiny details. He lived with his dad. Christopher visited Welington, a poodle from a neighbor's house. And he found the dog dead and had a gardener's fork stabbed on it. And so when he removed it, blood flowed and the neighbor shocked thought Christopher killed the dog and was sent to jail. Proved innocent, he went home with his father and thus his quest to find who killed the dog. He loved mysteries like Sherlock Holmes. Christopher even decided to write a book about his investigation to solve who killed the dog. His dad also had mentioned that his mom died...heart problem. Later on in the story, Christopher finds out that his dad was the one who killed the dog and that his mom was alive and wrote letters which his dad kept. He traveled on his own to find his mother who lived at 451-C Chapter Rd. London NW25NG. He finally did but he wanted to go back to his father's house but not to see him but bec. he was scheduled to take the A Level math test. And so he did and he passed. And soon he'd take the Physics exam bec. he wanted to go to a university just like the others. It's a good read but it made my head hurt when he was lost and in order for him to relax he had to focus on solving equations in his head and how he needed to find a system or order in things to make him feel relaxed and that he thinks too much and absorbs too much input that he sometimes has a headache. But in the end it's the realization that he can make things possible despite his situation, he was able to solve who killed the dog, he finished writing a book, he was able to get to London on his own and he passed the A Level Math exam.   hide

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time est une histoire belle et simple, qui n'a pas beaucoup d'intérêt sauf dans le fait que le narrateur est un adolescent autiste. Et c'est une lecture formidable. Haddon nous emporte dans les mécanismes dela pensée logique de son personnage, qui connaît les nombres premiers et les mécanismes de l'Univers mais déteste la couleur...more

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time est une histoire belle et simple, qui n'a pas beaucoup d'intérêt sauf dans le fait que le narrateur est un adolescent autiste. Et c'est une lecture formidable. Haddon nous emporte dans les mécanismes dela pensée logique de son personnage, qui connaît les nombres premiers et les mécanismes de l'Univers mais déteste la couleur jaune et ne peux pas manger les haricots et le bacon s'ils se sont touchés dans l'assiette. Les chapitres ne suivent pas l'ordre des nombres entiers mais des nombres premiers, justement, et c'est assez déstabilisant. Pas grand-chose à rajouter, sauf à dire que la prouesse est réelle, la recherche probablement immense, et que ce livre vous apprendra un peu plus sur l'autisme qu'un film avec Tom Cruise ou votre prof de maths. Et vous fera, inmanquablement, reconsidérer votre perception de votre propre culture et de vos capacités intellectuelles ; mieux, vous fera décorréler votre perception de votre culture et les capacitiés de l'intellect. Le jeune Christopher, ici, est hors-monde, hors culture en quelque sorte, mais il vous met une race en calcul mental. More on : http://laminutelitterairedelouisbernard.blogspot.com/   hide

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of those Oscar-winning tour-de-forces portraying a disabled person with honesty and empathy. The narrator, Christopher Boone, never identifies his specific disability, though the book jacket says Asperger's Syndrome. The British teenager sets out to write a mystery story, because that's the kind of book he enjoys reading. The story begins...more

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of those Oscar-winning tour-de-forces portraying a disabled person with honesty and empathy. The narrator, Christopher Boone, never identifies his specific disability, though the book jacket says Asperger's Syndrome. The British teenager sets out to write a mystery story, because that's the kind of book he enjoys reading. The story begins with the mysterious violent death of a neighbor's standard poodle. Chris decides to investigate the crime. At first the objections of his father and the dog's owner seem like the understandable response to hearing that the eccentric boy is knocking on neighbors' doors. Some novels start out being one thing and then turn into another, but this manages to be two things at once. It's about Chris's personal growth outside his comfort zone and his ability to achieve things neither he nor his parents believed possible. It's also about the mystery of the dog, which turns out to be a crime of passion. Although the story is told by Chris, who explains very logically why brown and yellow foods are bad, but red foods are good, and about how sequences of red cars can forecast his day, the author does a fantastic job showing both Chris's world and how others in his world respond to him. Having a son who gets so overwhelmed in a store that he has to lie down and scream to make the world go away, and who can't and won't be hugged for reassurance is hell. This would be a great book group book, a great book for young adult readers, for adults, or for anyone who wants to see the world through very foreign eyes.   hide

I have a terrible confession. I have a unforgiveably deplorable and inexcusable habit. I am one of those people who, maybe due to impatience or maybe due to a fear of dying and never finding out the ending, reads the ending of a book first. When I started reading The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-time by Mark Haddon, I, of course, true to the semi-o.c. person that I am,...more

I have a terrible confession. I have a unforgiveably deplorable and inexcusable habit. I am one of those people who, maybe due to impatience or maybe due to a fear of dying and never finding out the ending, reads the ending of a book first. When I started reading The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-time by Mark Haddon, I, of course, true to the semi-o.c. person that I am, instinctly started scanning the final pages. I was surprised to find something strangely familiar: it was the Pythagorean Theorem being explained in the way our old textbooks did. Yes, my sentiments, exactly. I initially thought that there might have been an error in the publishing. However, before I was getting comfy at the greedy idea that it might be worth something on E-bay, I started browsing back a bit and discovered that the formula was an integral part of the story. In other words: Off to page one I went! What starts off as a murder mystery, the story then transforms into something else. I was drawn to the uniqueness of the lead character. I cheered him on through every triumphant and heartbreaking part of his journey. Author Haddon wove his tale so smoothly and effortlessly that I just couldn't put it down. Even if I knew the ending.   hide

Told from the point of view of Christopher, a teenage boy with autism, this book does an amazing job of showing how another's mind works. On one of his nightly walks, Christopher discovers the neighbors dog has been killed by a garden fork. At the encouragement of one of his teachers he is writing a book, and decides to make it a mystery book and try to find out who killed the dog. He also...more

Told from the point of view of Christopher, a teenage boy with autism, this book does an amazing job of showing how another's mind works. On one of his nightly walks, Christopher discovers the neighbors dog has been killed by a garden fork. At the encouragement of one of his teachers he is writing a book, and decides to make it a mystery book and try to find out who killed the dog. He also discovers, and solves, other mysteries in his family as the past suddenly isn't as clear as he thought it was. It was interesting noticing my own thoughts as I read the book, about Christopher, and about myself. About Christopher: that kid has a bright future ahead of him. He's great at math. He's going to be great at physics. Sure he might not accomplish what the rest of us might, but he won't know what he's missing. He has copping skills that he is improving with. For him, trust equals love. If he can trust someone, it is the same as me saying I love someone. But being lied to is the ultimate betrayal for him, and means the person who lied doesn't love him. It's so interesting how my mind will start to follow the pattern of the book. My thoughts start to come just like the phrasing in the book when I read for any length of time. The longer I read in one sitting, the longer it takes to wear off. I noticed this when I read Skellig as well, which was written in an almost poetic form - very beautiful. The book did a great job of letting us inside Christopher's head, but I don't like having to jump over that many swear words in my head, hence the rating.   hide