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What are readers saying about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time?
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-22 11:02:38.
(Language: English)
  
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.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-25 05:36:55.
(Language: English)
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/
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-30 09:51:24.
(Language: English)
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.
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Jaclyn posted a review at 2009-08-11 01:18:09.
(Language: English)
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.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-13 06:12:45.
(Language: English)
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.
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Michael posted a review at 2008-08-15 11:11:25.
(Language: English)
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
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Susan posted a review at 2007-08-25 02:53:23.
(Language: English)
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.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-30 09:31:32.
(Language: English)
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.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-11-01 11:19:01.
(Language: English)
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.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-30 01:56:17.
(Language: English)
I'm sure this is a children's book, but I find it hard to believe. Maybe it's because it's told from the perspective of a child, but certainly no child that I know. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time is a detective novel, told from the point of view of a fifteen year old child suffering from Aspergers syndrome, a form of autism. The description of what goes on in his head is strangely fascinating, alien, scary and frustrating all in one. Fascinating: The child's whole thought process, his innocent, logical view of the world where if it isn't a shade of black and white then he refuses to acknowledge it Alien: His approach to things, to situations, to crowds, to strangers, to conversation Scary: How his fear translates into others immediate danger. The way he describes holding on to his swiss army knife when he's troubled makes you fear what he might do Frustrating: I just want to shake this kid and explain the world to him. But I can't. Because my world and his world are completely different and there's nothing anyone can do about it I really enjoyed this book and it's certainly opened my eyes somewhat to the effects of living with autism. People who look after autistic kids certainly have a good degree of sympathy from me.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-24 05:16:47.
(Language: English)
My first impression of Haddon's "The Curious Incident.." was not favorable. It seemed a cheap gimmick to feature as a narrator of a detective/mystery novel a 15 year-old autistic boy, and it rubbed me the wrong way. (A blurb on the back of the book reinforced this feeling: it compared this novel to one of my favorite books in high school: Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" which, as I recall, featured a mentally retarded narrator). As I continued reading, however, I warmed up to the conceit, and found myself relating more and more to this kid. By the end, it won me over. Funny, heartfelt, poignant; qualities more books these days should possess. Gimmicky? Yeah. A Good Read? Yeah. (A side note: this novel really appealed to my OCD-ness, and almost derailed my enjoyment of it; to whit: The protagonist has an aversion to the colors yellow and brown. One of his favorite foods is baked beans. How the heck can he eat baked beans when all the baked beans I've ever seen are brown? WTF??? The book was saved by his probability analyses and quadratic equation fun and games...go figure)
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-23 03:58:40.
(Language: English)
Now we've all heard about autism in some forum or the other but in this novel you get to experience it not as a bystander but as a parent, a neighbor, a police officer, a teacher and Christopher John Francis Boone. This novel gives you insight on the structure of what may seem to be the most menial of everyday thoughts. It opens you up to the world of autism when you go on this journey to discover who murdered a neighborhood dog, a dog that Christopher Boone who suffers from autism is fond of as he is fond of dogs in general and pets because they're safe and trustworthy. Unlike people whom are touchy, chatty and set out to confuse you with too many facial expressions. He's a courageous young man with the inability to lie and social norms are to complex for him to fully grasp. Throughout his detecting he unlocks some secrets that would change the course of many "normal" people in life but Christopher's logical mind doesn't allow these things to deter him on the path to solve these mysteries and always remains objective. Excellent insight into the astounding mind of an autistic child.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-30 03:39:54.
(Language: English)
Having once been married to a man with Asperger's Syndrome (he wasn't diagnosed until after we split up), I can say that Mr. Haddon is right on target with his portrayal of a person with these traits. I laughed out loud in so many places, not necessarily because the story was amusing, but more because I'd heard my ex say exactly the same things so many times. Seriously, almost to the exact wording. The thing that impressed me most about Mr. Haddon was not his ability to write the things he'd heard people on the Autistic spectrum say, but his ability to say them in ways that made me understand what they were thinking and where they were coming from. My ex tried so many times to explain to me how not having a schedule when we were on holiday made him feel, but I just couldn't get it. When I read this book, I finally clued in, and even experienced some delayed guilt for the stress I'd put my hubby under numerous times because of my inability to relate.It's not necessarily an easy book to read, although it is quite short, and it's not necessarily a fun book to read. But I think it's an important book to read. It's so important to realize that not all people are the same or relate or react to things in the same ways. And with this book, Mr. Haddon has given us a wonderful glimpse into a different interpretation of the world that we all should experience.Quotes:"I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross, and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk." "I do not like people shouting at me. It makes me scared that they are going to hit me or touch me and I do not know what is going to happen." "I also said that I cared about dogs because they were faithful and honest, and some dogs were cleverer and more interesting than some people. Steve, for example, who comes to the school on Thursdays, needs help to eat his food and could not even fetch a stick. Siobhan asked me not to say this to Steve's mother.""I sometimes think of my mind as a machine.... It makes it easier to explain to other people what is going on inside it.""I find people confusing. This is for two main reasons. The first main reason is that people do a lot of talking without using any words.... The second main reason is that people often talk using metaphors.... The word metaphor means carrying something from one place to another... and it is when you describe something by using a word for something that it isn't. This means that the word metaphor is a metaphor. I think it should be called a lie...""I decided that I was going to find out who killed Wellington even though Father had told me to stay out of other people's business. This is because I do not always do what I am told. And this is because when people tell you what to do it is usually confusing and does not make any sense. For example, people often say "Be quiet," but they don't tell you how long to be quiet for.""All the other children at my school are stupid. Except I'm not meant to call them stupid, even though this is what they are.""People say that you always have to tell the truth. But they do not mean this because you are not allowed to tell old people that they are old and you are not allowed to tell people if they smell funny.... And you are not allowed to say "I don't like You" unless that person has been horrible to you.""And that is one of the other reasons why I don't like France, because when people are on holiday they don't have a timetable and I had to get Mother and Father to tell me every morning exactly what we were going to do that day to make me feel better.""And this is why I like timetables, because they make sure you don't get lost in time."
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-02 10:43:39.
(Language: English)
" Mrs. Peters's husband is a vicar called the Reverend Peters, and he comes to our school sometime to talk to us, and I asked him where heaven was, and he said, "It's not in our universe. It's a different kind of place altogether." The Reverend Peters makes a funny ticking noise sometimes with his tongue when he is thinking. And he smokes cigarettes and you can smell them on his breath and I don't like this.I said that there wasn't anything outside the universe and there wasn't another kind of place altogether. Except that there might be if you went through a black hole, but a black hole is what is called a singularity, which means it is impossible to find out what is on the other side because the gravity of a black hole is so big that even electromagnetic waves like light can't get out of it, and electromagnetic waves are how we get information about things that are far away. And if heaven was on the other side of a black hole, people would have to be fired into space on rockets to get there and they aren't or people would notice. I think people believe in heaven because they don't like the idea of dying, because they won't to carry on living and don't like the idea that other people will move into their house and put their things into the rubbish." Meet 15-year old Christopher Boone, a kid with Asperger's Syndrome whose dream is to become an astronaut. Christopher likes maths and science and puzzles. And he also likes animals. So when his neighbour's dog is killed he goes on a quest to find out who did it. It's hard being a detective when you have difficulties communicating with people, and a dozen other "behavioral problems" but Christopher does it anyway; and when he finds out who the murderer is, the revelations that follow turn his world upside down. That's pretty much the storyline. I had no idea what rating I would give the book. While I was reading it I knew I was enjoying it very much: Christopher's little rants about maths puzzles, about the universe, about the inexplicable behaviour of his fellow humans, and about himself are lovely. Even now I find myself thinking about them and quoting them very often. But at the same time I didn't get the feeling that I was reading a great book. I think that has a lot to do with the writing. In Haddon's attempt to portray Christopher as realistically as possible, he makes him employ a simple, logical, undemanding and unsentimental language - which is indeed very effective in creating the impression that we're actually in Christopher's head. The problem with this, however, is that even after having read the book I still can't tell if Haddon is a good or a bad writer. On the one hand I cannot say the writing is beautiful - sometimes the book feels like reading a science book and sometimes like a teenager's diary. On the other hand, that is after all, the effect the author was trying to create: that the novel is written by a science-obsessed teenager with certain behavioral issues who views the world very logically. I must say I would be very curious to read something else by Haddon, if only to see how his writing differs from this book. That said, I did enjoy this one quite a bit and I think it is definitely worth the very short time it will take you to read it.
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Jeremy posted a review at 2007-09-27 09:38:58.
(Language: English)
Excellent insight into the mind of an autistic child and the challange faced by those around them. I like this quote from the book: "5 red cars mean that it is going to be a Super Good Day. On my way to school I watch the cars going past the bus and remember their colours. 3 red cars in a row mean that it is going to be a Quite Good Day. 4 red cars mean that it is going to be a Good Day. 5 red cars mean that it is going to be a Super Good Day. And 4 yellow cars in a row mean that it is going to be a Black Day, which is a day when I don't speak to anyone and don't eat my lunch and Take No Risks, because yellow is the colour of custard and double yellow lines and Yellow Fever which is a deadly disease." Quoted review (I can't remember where from... ): "Fifteen-year-old Christopher has a photographic memory. He understands maths. He understands science. What he can't understand are other human beings. When he finds his neighbour's dog, Wellington, lying dead on a neighbour's lawn, he decides to track down the killer and write a murder mystery novel about it. In doing so, however, he uncovers other mysteries that threaten to bring his whole world crashing down around him. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is an astonishing novel - funny, sad and utterly unputdownable. "Christopher is 15 and lives in Swindon with his father. He has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. He is obsessed with maths, science and Sherlock Holmes but finds it hard to understand other people. When he discovers a dead dog on a neighbour's lawn he decides to solve the mystery and write a detective thriller about it. As in all good detective stories, however, the more he unearths, the deeper the mystery gets - for both Christopher and the rest of his family. The book's narrator, Christopher is gifted at and focused on mathematics: this is reflected by his inclusion of several famous puzzles of maths and logic. The book's appendix is a reproduction of a question from Christopher's A-level examination, with annotated answers. The book also includes the unlikely incident of seeing four yellow cars in a row, an event which holds significance to the narrator, who has an aversion to the colour yellow. Christopher's mathematical interests are reflected in his numbering his chapters strictly with prime numbers, ignoring composite numbers such as 4 and 6. So the first is Chapter 2, followed by 3, then 5, 7, 11, and so on. In addition, the contents in consecutive chapters alternate: Chapter 2 is about the unfolding story; Chapter 3 explores some aspects of the narrator's inner life not necessarily directly relevant to the immediate action; Chapter 5 returns to the narrative. This alternation continues throughout the book with the story often digressing into seeming unconnected subjects such as Christopher's atheism and the Cottingley Fairies. Another technique used to emphasise the different perceptions of the world experienced by people with autism, is the switching of fonts and use of long, run-on sentences when describing the surroundings. Thus the book's overall structure as well as its content supports the literary device that what we are reading is a novel penned by the autistic narrator, Christopher, rather than the author. This general technique of fictional autobiography was exploited by Daniel Defoe in what is regarded as the first novel in English, Robinson Crusoe. But it really follow the Sherlock Holmes structure. Christopher's narration is very precise and reliable with regard to objective facts but his view of the events of the story is often very different from what might be expected. For example, in one scene, Christopher is nearly killed by an oncoming train as he retrieves his pet rat, who has scampered onto the tracks of the London Underground. Through his narration, we see the scene unfold completely, but he himself remains unaware of the danger he is in, and of the closeness of his brush with death. This is also an example of dramatic irony, in which the reader understands more about a situation than the character does.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-02-06 01:57:16.
(Language: English)
Mark Haddon (2003): "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" This is what I just posted on the Discussion Board of the Norwegian literature-discussion group "Bokvenner": Jeg har nettopp lest denne, og er begeistret & beveget. Den er akkurat så god og klok og søt og trist som reklamen lovet, og den kjennes "ekte". Jeg skal passe på å ikke nevne her at det var butleren som var morderen, men det litterære grepet er å la historien bli fortalt av en femtenåring med sterke autistiske-aspergerske trekk. Dette er aldeles vellykket, fortellermessig, fordi vi alminneligheter i sofaene våre blir tvunget til å tenke om igjen på hvordan de små og de litt større hendelser faktisk blir registrert og tolket. Hva som er farlig, eller dramatisk, eller truende, eller vanskelig, eller kanskje ukomplisert og helt trygt, følger helt andre skalaer enn de vi er vant med. En separat diskusjon av en viss interesse er i hvilken grad forfatteren Mark Haddon har forsøkt, eventuelt lykkes med, å portrettere hvordan en ekte autist, eller asperger, lever og tenker. Her forstår jeg det er delte meninger, selv om Haddon "har jobbet med autister", ifølge en eller annen nettkilde. Det er slett ikke min mening å føre opp enhver bok jeg leser som et "Discussion Topic", men akkurat denne tror jeg mange har lest, og at meningene er sprikende. Disse vil jeg gjerne lytte til. Uansett, boken er "lettlest", i ordets gode betydning (ta den en kveld TV-en ikke står på), og anbefales. Den er også oversatt til norsk, "Den merkelige hendelsen med hunden den natten".
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-10-21 07:31:21.
(Language: English)
Very good. The portrayal of a teenager with Asperger's fitted with my limited experience of communications with people with various levels of autism, and hopefully will help me communicate better in future. Plus the young man, Christoper, likes Sherlock Holmes and doesn't like yellow or brown, so I immediately developed a rapport! (My dislike of yellow and brown doesn't extend to food, but I did wonder why Christopher took the custard creams). As for the story itself, the murder wasn't much of a mystery if you don't have Asperger's - so although it's a mystery to Christopher, for those of us reading the story, the mystery is the workings of Christopher's mind. But everyone's mind is a mystery, our own included. Christopher's insight into the working of his mind is uncluttered and real, and made the story interesting to me from a Yogic and Zen Buddhist perspective too, which both seek to understand the mystery of mind. Some of the techniques he uses to calm himself down are similar to yogic techniques for calming (holding his ears and groaning, for example, is similar to Brahmari Pranayama and the star watching has the effect of Unmani Mudra). There may be much more we can learn from people who have had to devise techniques for reducing the impact of too much incoming data. I wonder if yoga techniques are taught in special schools? The concept of non-dualism is also a major element of yoga (in the tradition of Shankaracharya), as it is in Zen Buddhism. Although both Yoga and Buddhism have this non-dual philosophy, the conclusions are very different indeed. From a Buddhist perspective, I have recently been grappling with the concept of no permanent self, and the idea that there is no permanent soul or spirit. On a recent meditation retreat at Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey, the Reverand Master leading the retreat referred frequently to 'The Ghost in the Machine' (Gilbert Ryle's description of Descarte's mind-body dualism). In chapter 163, Christopher gives a perfect description of how we come to think there is a ghost in our machine, "And when we look at things we think we're just looking out of our eyes like we're looking out of little windows and there's a person inside our head, but we're not. We're looking at a screen inside our heads, like a computer screen", and he goes on to describe how it is that we can use the mind to look at itself. This is the most succinct and elegant description of the position that there is no ghost in the machine that I have come across. In yoga, there is a state of being known as the 'Witness State' which is what Christopher appears to be describing, but his conclusion is closer to Zen Buddhism than to Yoga. Here is a description of the Witness State from a yoga website, http://www.kundalini-teacher.com/chakras/witness.php : "Q: Can you give me an explanation of the witness state? "Kaliji: The witness state is a term for witnessing the play of the mind. Ultimately, one witnesses the mind to such depth that the witness is realized as the soul. First, the mind witnesses the body; then the higher mind (according to yoga terms, the Buddhi), witnesses the lower mind. "Often the higher mind is thought of as the witness state. But to be aware of witnessing the mind there is a witness witnessing that. That is the Soul, the ultimate Witness in this Dual Consciousness. Witnessing the highest duality is the Non Dual State . . . Pure Consciousness ~ the Eternal Witness". Here is Christopher's description: "Because people can see the screen inside their head and they think there is someone in their head sitting there looking at the screen, like Captain Jean-Luc Picard in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', sitting in his captain's seat looking at the big screen. And they think that this person is their special human mind which is called a ~homunculus~, which means ~little man~. And they think that computers don't have this homunculus. "But this homunculus is just another picture on the screen in their heads. And when the homunculus is on the screen in their heads(because the person is thinking about the homunculus) there is another bit of brain watching the screen. And when the person thinks about this part of the brain (the bit that is watching the homunculus on the screen) they put this bit of the brain on the screen and there is another bit of the brain watching the screen. But the brain doesn't see this happening because it is like the eye flicking from one place to another* and people are blind inside their heads when they do the changing from thinking about one thing to thinking about another". *Christopher has previously described this phenomenon, called 'saccades' P.S.If Christopher's mum is a secretary, why is her spelling so poor
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-09-17 11:02:27.
(Language: English)
I began reading Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time under the impression it was a work of non-fiction, thinking it was written by a boy with autism documenting a particular experience in his own life. Somewhere around page 60 or so, a detail revealed in the story struck me as less real-life and more soap opera, so I finally read the back cover again and the “About the Author” page, which revealed that the truth I thought I had been reading was indeed fiction. Nonetheless, the intention is clear: to present a story from the point-of-view of a young boy with autism that is both interesting and enlightening to the reader. Was it interesting? Yes, but in retrospect, I’m not sure if it was enough for me to recommend the book. Haddon, who has worked extensively with autistic children in the past, has attempted to create both a realistic representation of autism and a main character that the reader doesn’t always label as “some autistic kid” when opening the book to read a new chapter. The way “Christopher” decides whether each day will be good or bad and which foods to eat seem genuine, as he takes time to explain how important these rules are to him even if they will always be arbitrary to others. Additionally, Christopher’s interactions with the neighborhood folks and his meetings with his school counselor provide a little humor and intrigue. However, in trying to make Christopher likeable and the story engaging, the author asks for too much suspension of disbelief, at least on my part. For example, Christopher is autistic, but it also becomes clear that he is highly functioning and very thoughtful about subjects he likes, such as math and astronomy. Later, throughout the final act of the book, Christopher becomes more of a mess of rushed run-on sentences moving the story along that cry “I have a mental disorder” a little too loudly. Shortly thereafter, he becomes even more intuitive than his original self, using methods of navigation during that final act that are a little too spontaneous and convenient to the story, leading towards a climax and conclusion that was too neat considering all of the relationships involved. Thus, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time falls smack dab in the middle of the scale, between disappointing and engaging.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-11-26 08:30:54.
(Language: English)
It's a rare book that can sit on the bestseller shelf and still call to me... for most tomes, the bestseller label is a big enough turn off to make me never consider it. That being said, I have no clue what made me go for this one. Maybe it was the upside-down dog. Maybe it was the lengthy title. But what I really don't get, having read it, is how it was ever a best-seller. That's not to say it's a bad book. It wasn't. I'll be honest, I don't know exactly how I feel about it, but it was not bad. It was done well, in fact. It just didn't have many elements that people like in best-sellers. Being done well, for example, is usually taboo. To start, it's a bit of a challenging read for the DaVinci Code crowd. We have to follow the train of thought of an autistic child, which isn't always as rational as he'd like to believe. Action will go on hold for stretches of time. There are diagrams and math problems. There's bold letters and repetitious breaking-down of everything. Even while some of these elements would make it easier for the normal book buyer to relate to, it's still a style that requires a brain to wrap around. Also, I found the characters wholly unlikable. Bestseller markets like likable characters. While I was offended and pained and trying to justify the fact that every character sucked at the end of, say, Tom Wolfe's "I Am Charlotte Simmons," Haddon's book is far smaller, so I feel the unlikable characters simply added a unique flavour. Honest, though, outside of minor, flat characters (who are actually the most likable), none of the main adult characters are good people, and Christopher, autistic or not, is a self-centered brat. I know, I'm supposed to have compassion for how unlike other kids he is, but I really don't. He's a huge brat and hyper-intelligent with book smarts but completely naive about real world smarts, which makes his self-important fact-rattling really, really annoying. It's how his character is supposed to be, though, so I can't fault the author. It does lead to another question, though... this is the sort of book where you need to know something about a problem effecting other humans. Is the bestseller public ready to be educated about autism? Who convinced them that disabilities were the new gauche thing to read about? At the end of the day, it was worth the read. It was a memorable book, and not bad, if not entirely my cup of tea. Still, I'm left wondering how it became so popular. Perhaps James Patterson has a hidden, literary pen name?
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Peachy posted a review at 2010-04-10 08:21:31.
(Language: English)
What a dismal and depressing state of affairs The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time turns out to be. Heavy-heartedness for the obvious struggles and emotional deficits of the main character, and narrator, suffering from Asperger Syndrome, were a harsh enlightenment. Then to add the lamentable fact that his parents would never feel emotion from their only son was crushing. But truly the most distressing aspect was that in a system where young Christopher had been brainwashed to believe in the horrors of ‘Stranger Danger,’ not unlike most kids in today’s society, it was only too obvious that it was the people closest to him that offered the most clear and present danger, and that instead it was a stranger that afforded him safety. Though Haddon had an interesting and fresh concept in this one, I did find it a little slow at times, especially with the detailing of math equations. That being said, it was obviously affective and gave a better understanding and depth into our protagonist and his obsessive and genius-like behaviours. By the anti-climactic end I realized that the story reminded me of Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rain Man, and how I had the same feelings of perpetual melancholy when I watched that many moons ago. My heart goes out to all families dealing with any form of autism, because God knows it takes super-human strength to deal with it at all, never mind well. Check out more of my reviews at BookSnakeReviews
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-08-12 04:48:58.
(Language: English)
The plot is a very normal Sherlock Holmes style mystery. There's a twist though. Sherlock Holmes is exchanged for Christopher Boone, a 15 year old autistic boy. As with the best mystery novels the actual mystery is beside the point. The point of this one is that Christopher is forced to leave his safe familiar haven, and go alone to somewhere he has never been. This isn't an easy thing for anyone to do, much less someone with autism, but Christopher takes a leap of faith and does it. Therefore this book is actually about the persistence and strength of the human spirit which transcends things like physical or mental impairment. As someone who has an autism spectrum disorder, my thanks go to Mark Haddon, for focusing on Christopher's essential humanity, and not solely on his disorder. Although Christopher has autism it does not define him, what defines him is his courage and his ironclad optimism. The good side, as well as the bad side of his autism is shown in blazing color, his knowledge of mathematics and physics, the kindness he shows towards animals. Through the character of Siobhan we see that Christopher is not a hopeless cause, and that with autistic kids, a little TLC goes a long way. By the end of the book Christopher has achieved the impossible, he has traveled all alone from one place to another, and managed to find his way through a crowded and foreign city. This would be hard and scary for the best of us, but for Christopher it is a baptism by fire into a world that even we find terrifying sometimes. Yet he does not hate the world because it is scary, rather he learns to face down and defeat his fears. Having thus faced them, he rises above them to achieve his goal. This is the real point of this book. Through the device of someone who is afraid of things that aren't scary (like being touched) the author shows us something about ourselves. We all have irrational fears, whether of the dark, or spiders, or of death, but we have to face them not run from them. In confronting our fears, Mark Haddon gently tells us, we will find that we are able to rise above them in order to do what must be done.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-05-30 09:13:02.
(Language: English)
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” has one of the most unique voices of any book I've ever read. Mark Haddon tells the story of a 16-yr-old autistic boy through his voice. He lives with his father in a suburb of London and he tends to go wandering in the middle of the night. One night while wandering he finds his neighbor's dead dog on her lawn. He decides that he should investigate the dog's death and write a book about said investigation. This is that book. At times it's a little difficult to get through it. It gets somewhat dry, but that's the point. The boy, Christopher, goes off on strange tangents. But it's important to read it all because it colors the way of the boy's thinking for the reader. It's quite an interesting way to experience a story...through the eyes of an autistic boy. There's not a whole lot more to share without giving away specific plot points and I don't want to do that. The novel is short and more or less quick reading. I definitely think if you're a fan of a unique perspective this is a good book to check out. I really liked it. I won't go so far as to say it's great, but it was certainly really good.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-07-24 08:26:11.
(Language: English)
This is an absolutely Amazing Book told from the very pointedly factual perspective of the British-born main character Christopher Boone. Christopher is a 15 year old mentally challenged yet brilliant (possibly autistic?) boy who lives with his single-parent father, and goes to a special school. Patterns are very important to him. Strangers upset him. He is childlike in his thinking, and in many ways he cannot care for himself. He is honesty personified because he is unable to grasp the meaning of irony, double entendre, subtle twists of language and wordplay; he has difficulty understanding jokes and humor. In this same vein he is brilliant in "maths" and science. Certain colors bother Christopher - yellow and brown, for example. He explains to the reader, in his serious and factual way, six reasons why yellow is bad. "YELLOW 1. Custard 2. Bananas (bananas also turn brown) 3. Double Yellow Lines 4. Yellow Fever (which is a disease from tropical America and West Africa which causes a high fever, acute nephritis, jaundice and hemorrhages, and it is caused by a virus transmitted by the bite of a mosquito called Aedes aegypti, which used to be called Stegomyia fasciata; and nephritis is an inflammation of the kidneys) 5. Yellow Flowers (because I get hay fever from flower pollen, which is one of 3 sorts of hay fever, and the others are from grass pollen and fungus pollen, and it makes me feel ill) 6. Sweet Corn (because it comes out in your poo and you don't digest it so you are not really meant to eat it, like grass or leaves)" Christopher found his neighbor's dog deceased on the lawn, and has decided that he is going to solve the murder, and write a murder mystery novel for his writing project at school. The book's chapters vacillate between his attempts to ferret out clues regarding the murder, and more journalistic-type entries, as he becomes distracted from his original course. The physical structure of the book is also fascinating. It is full of sketches and drawing of things that Christopher has seen or is trying to explain to the reader. The chapters are not numbered sequentially, but rather, Christopher has decided to use only prime numbers, because he likes them better. Since the book is written from Christopher's point of view, we learn of his world slowly, piece by piece, not as you would in a 3rd person omniscient narration... and what we begin to discover is very interesting. What Christopher believes as the base of truth in his life (what he has been told is true), is not. And he is about to uncover THAT mystery along with the mystery of the murdered dog. Two thumbs up.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-12-05 03:09:40.
(Language: English)
Due to it being a best-selling and award winning book I had heard it's name a long time before actually getting around to picking up a copy of this novel. The surprising thing was that although I had heard the name, seen the shelf space dedicated to it and read the award results- I had yet to have any idea at all what the book was about (other than the clues in the title). This exposure of 'the brand' meant that when I finally got around to reading the novel I had a curious mixture of expectation and pressure to enjoy the prose laying upon me. The story is actually wrote from the perspective of Christopher, a 15 year old with a form of Autism called Aspergers Syndrome (although some experts believe that some characteristics displayed on the book suggest that the character is suffering from a more severe form of Autism). The fact that the 'book' is actually 'written' by Christopher makes it an interesting and quirky read because what he chooses to tell us and they way he describes incidents are just as important as the story itself. It was the idiosyncratic way in which the novel is written that held the most appeal for me in this book. There is also a smattering of dark humour in the way that our narrator sees the world and interacts with other people (but it is the type of humour when you end up thinking 'should i have laughed at that?' afterwards). As much as I enjoyed the writing style I sadly felt that this was the biggest draw for me and that the story seemed, at times, to be a secondary act to the story itself. A fact that is unavoidable due to haddon's decision to write as Christopher. It is a brave novel and unique, deserving the recognition it has receieved ( whether that be due to Haddon's celebrity of the quality of the work) however I just couldn't really take the main character to heart. That was probably Haddon's intention and in that respect the book is certainly believable and authentic. The only character I felt was likeable, the father, is portrayed in a negative manner by Christopher and this lead to me disliking the character even more (again, an intention of Haddon I am sure) Overall I would recommend this to anyone if only for it's unique nature.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-24 01:55:05.
(Language: English)
This book is every bit as good as its publicity states. Christopher has Asperger’s Syndrome. This means he has not got the social skills most people take for granted. He views the world in his own, unique way, and has rituals and processes to make him feel safe, for example he does not like food to be touching once it is served onto a plate. Christopher needs people to be truthful with him at all times, and can only understand instructions if they are explicit, for example you cannot tell him to be quite, you must tell him for how long he has to be quiet. Anything that is said to him must make logical sense. Logic is Christopher’s talent, if events can be put into a timetable, or mathematised in some way, Christopher can understand it, and it makes him feel safe. Christopher also hates to be touched. So when Christopher discovers his neighbour Mrs Shears’ dog, dead in her garden, he decides to work out this puzzle as though he were a detective, but this path leads him to discover his Father’s lies, that it’s not only stranger’s who he should be afraid to trust and that he needs to break out of his protected world to find his Mother. Christopher’s carefully constructed safe world caves in on him and he needs to use his exceptional skills to solve all the puzzles and reach his goal, to sit his Maths A’Level. I am full of admiration for Mark Haddon, the reader truly understands events from Christopher’s viewpoint. Christopher is so rude about people, and acts so strangely (screaming and covering his ears in a too-busy department store for example) but this seems perfectly normal when viewed through Christopher. Truly a book I could not put down and one that deserves every award going. I loved it, and I think Christopher is ace.
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