The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
by Mark Haddon

 

Award: LA Times Winner 2003


Nomination: Booker Longlist 2003, Dublin Longlist 2005, James Tait Black Finalist 2003

 

Date Read: January 24, 2019

 

Every novel has something unique about it – plot, voice, construct – and this one has it all. Written from the perspective of a child with autism, Haddon has created a world where readers get to inhabit a unique mind and achieve a greater understanding of the behaviors associated with a brain that is trying to process too much stimuli. I loved every page of this.

 

“Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.

 

Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, for fifteen-year-old Christopher everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning. He lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his pocket. Then one day, a neighbor's dog, Wellington, is killed and his carefully constructive universe is threatened. Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the style of his favorite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes. What follows makes for a novel that is funny, poignant and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing are a mind that perceives the world entirely literally.”

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