The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

by Mark Haddon and Simon Stephens

A bestselling modern classic—both poignant and funny—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.

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. At fifteen, Christopher’s carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbour’s dog Wellington impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.

Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer, and turns to his favourite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents’ marriage. As Christopher tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, the narrative draws readers into the workings of Christopher’s mind.

And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon’s choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotions. The effect is dazzling, making for one of the freshest debut in years: a comedy, a tearjerker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.

• ISBN10: 0385659806
• ISBN13: 9780385659802
• Publish Date: 18 May 2004 (first published 1 May 2003)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: CA
• Imprint: Anchor Canada
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 240
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/isbn/9780385659802

Reviews

[Linda]

Very different story, with a narrator who was able to keep me guessing with his strange way of reasoning things.

Now off to make up questions for my class so we have some points to discuss.

[mbtc]

An interesting tale and an interesting narrative. A different look into a different life.

[boghunden]

I read this book in less than 24 hours, not because it was that good, but because it had such great humor! This is a very uniquely written book with a lot of great quotes and stuff, but it also had some mathematically oriented sentences, which, to me, felt like they were only there to show how clever Christopher was.

The book is told from Christopher's POV, and since he has Aspergers Syndrom, the book suffers from lack of an over all storyline. It had some great sidestories, but I missed the "whole picture," sort of.

[Stephanie]

This is really a 4.5 stars book. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed it. Very interesting point of view. There were a few sections toward the end of the book that made me question the realism of certain parts (mostly in the train station, with his pet rat and the Swiss army knife and why no one really questioned him past raising an eyebrow) but other than that I found this a fast read and worth the time spent reading it.

That is all.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time tells the story of Christopher Boone, a 15 year autistic boy. Christopher has set out to work out who killed the neighbour’s dog Wellington. While I don’t claim to understand anything about autism, I was a little jealous at how logically and well Christopher thought. While Christopher is out playing detective trying to solve the murder of Wellington, he is writing this book to recount his adventures. His adventures lead him to discover a much bigger mystery that he needs to solve as well.



Like most decent mysteries, Mark Haddon wastes no time to get into the thick of the action; the very first page sees the dog impaled by the gardening fork. Unlike normal young detective novels (Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys), this is more of a nod to the Sherlock Holmes novels with the gruesome crime and the way Christopher thinks.



The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is written the way that Christopher would write it. Even the chapter numbers show is love of maths; the book starts at chapter 2 and only uses the prime numbers all the way up to chapter 233. This book is a very interesting read, not only is it a very enjoyable mystery, but it also gives you a little insight into the mind of an autistic boy. I feel like I understand autism a little better while I read this great book.

[ibeforem]

I often worry that these books with a lot of buzz won’t live up to the hype by the time I get around to reading them. In this case, I shouldn’t have worried. From his prime-numbered chapters to his reasons why he doesn’t like the colors yellow and brown, Haddon’s autistic narrator is full of his own charm, even if he couldn’t tell you what charm was. You can’t help but feel for this boy who wants to find out who killed his neighbor’s dog, thinks his mother is dead, and lacks the filter we take for granted to see and hear only that which is important to us. From time to time you may get bogged down in Christopher’s factual digressions and descriptions, but it’s not long before you’re caught back up in his story.

[remo]

Este libro salió hace poco, y reconozco que el protagonista era tan friki que me cayó simpático inmediatamente, haciéndome comprar el libro. Cristopher Boone, según reza la contraportada, sabe de relatividad, conoce de memoria los números primos hasta el 7507 y adora la astronomía y los ordenadores, pero tiene problemas para relacionarse con la gente. Y su vida cambia cuando una noche descubre muerto al perro de la vecina. Al stilo de Sherlock Holmes, su héroe literario, Christopher se pondrá a investigar siguiendo férreamente los dictados de la lógica.
El libro me recuerda un poco a Forrest Gump. Narra la vida a través de un chico que parece claramente un idiot savant, un chico con estupendas aptitudes para algunas cosas pero relativamente incapaz de realizar una vida normal debido a otros tantos problemas de interacción con el mundo.
El libro está narrado por el protagonista, que es completamente lógico en sus interpretaciones de lo que le rodea. Aprovecha cada cierto número de páginas (los capítulos están numerados de forma peculiar: 2,3,5,7,11,13,17... uséase, los números primos) para hacer una disquisición física o matemática o biológica, en plan divulgación, y criticando ferozmente la superchería, y la magufada, id est, la pseudociencia. El libro se lee de un tirón (yo tardé tres horas y pico) y deja un regusto agridulce, ya que las circunstancias que rodean la vida de Cristopher no son las mejores. Muy entretenido y recomendable.