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

The book that's had everyone talking this last year is most definitely The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time. Why? Well, above everything else it's different. It's insightful. It's passionate. It's simple. Sometimes you read a complicated book that dumfounds you. You just fall in love with it, with its all complicated bits, with all its difficult parts. You can feel the same way, sometimes, with a simple book. You, basically, fall in love with its simplicity. And that's why everyone's been talking about it. Because, it's one of those simple books that you just fall in love with.

I'd been meaning to read The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time for a long while. I first read a review of it back in October and instantly decided I loved the idea of it. I never got round to buying it then, but when the paperback came out I immediately added it to my Amazon basket. I usually tend to wait until my Amazon order is £25 or over so I can have free delivery, but I was desperate to read it. On a recent shopping trip to Tesco I found it there for a mere £3.73, so I came home, deleted it from my Amazon basket, and sat down and read it!

Immediately I was hooked. I honestly and truly couldn't put it down. I read it all in one go from the first until the last page, absorbing every single word with eagerness. I loved it, just like everyone told me I would. Haddon managed to grip me from the beginning right until the end; unlike any other author has done so before. Even my favourite novelists haven't succeeded to have that effect on me. I think I can easily say, that The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time will go down on my top 5 best books of all time.

So, what is it all about? What makes it so good? Well there isn't an answer to why it's so good, the talent behind that is Mark Haddon. But, I can tell you what it's about. Christopher Boone has Asperger's Syndrome. His life revolves around maths and what colour cars he sees in the morning. He is innocence in its subtlest form. He lives with his Father. His Mother died of a heart attack. When he finds his neighbour - Mrs Shear's - dog dead in the garden with a garden fork sticking out of his stomach, he sets out to find who is the murderer. This leads him to many a revelation and a world that Christopher isn't used to. So, he decides (as does his helper Siobhan) that he should write a book about the events that occur after the dog's death. So, that's what he does. And that's The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time is described as a murder mystery novel. That angers me, because it's anything but that. Christopher doesn't really investigate at all. It just comes out who killed the dog. He asks a few questions at the beginning of the book, but he does not ask any further questions to anyone later on in the novel. To call it a murder mystery novel degrades it completely. Not because it's offensive to the book, but simply because it's not a murder mystery novel. It's insightful. Insightful into a boy's life that is so difficult you just can't imagine it. Not just for Christopher but for his Father too. I bet it's harder - much harder - for his Father than Christopher, because, really, Christopher is content with who he is. His Father has to watch him be how he is.

It's so sad to read, because at times you just find it heart-breaking. You sometimes forget, whilst reading, that Christopher isn't really made up. Yes, he's a fictional character but there are many people like him who suffer from this awful syndrome. It's awful to think that he is just an example of how they lead a life. It makes you feel guilty for ever complaining how hard life is, or how difficult it is to do something or other. Compare yourself to Christopher and you feel silly. He is basically someone who hasn't had the opportunity to live. He's just there. He's alive, breathing, talks; he does most things that are expected from someone. But he hasn't got a life. He hasn't, really, got anything to life for. And it's awful to think that there are other people just like him out there living a normal, daily life. And you have to read a book like this to learn about them. Silly, isn't it?

I often wondered when reading the book whether Christopher knew he was different. You only find out that he has Asperger's Syndrome from the blurb at the back of the book, he never mentions it in the book. So, does he know he's different? Of course he does, but it doesn't bother him. One poignant part in the book, I found, was when he had a dream at night. He dreamt that everyone apart from "people like him" were dead. Only "people like him" were still alive. The "people like him" he refers to are the people that suffer from the same syndrome as him. This is the only part in the book where Christopher points out he's actually different. It's also the only part where he shows us being different does bother him. Does hurt him. I found this part of the book very significant and relevant to the story.

Some people I've spoken to who've read the book complain about the swearing in it. Is it relevant, they ask? Totally. It's classed as a children's book (which I'll come to in a moment) but there is an edition available without the swearing. But to me, it is relevant anyway. Why? Well, because it shows how insignificant swearing is to him. It's words. It's nothing. He even refers to sex as "doing sex". It's totally innocent to him. It means nothing. If swearing is in his book, what the hell, swearing is in his book, that's what he feels. Christopher's tolerance for swearing is another thing that shows us just how different to us he really is.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time is classed as a children's book (as I've already mentioned). This again degrades it, in my opinion. It's written so simply, and beautifully, exactly how someone suffering from the syndrome would write it. I can't help but feel it's classed as a children's book just because of its simplicity. There are so many parts that children of a young age wouldn't understand. Would they get anything from it? Well, I don't believe anyone could read this and not get anything from it, but would the message be as strong as it would be if they read it at an older age? I don't think it would, and I think classing it as children's book merely makes people think it's written so simply not because that's how Christopher would write, but because it's aimed at children.

There are many pictures, diagrams and other things in the book that is so interesting and adds to its greatness. It makes you think that Christopher is desperate for you to see what he sees. At one stage he said.

"I drew a bus, that looked like this:"

And then there was a picture of a bus. It makes you think that perhaps Christopher added these in frustration. Perhaps he wanted you to see what he did, and couldn't bare not giving you the opportunity to see it as well. He mentions at times that he finds it hard to describe things, but Siobhan (his helper) has told him that you must have descriptive parts in a book, and that creates a picture in the readers' head. I can't help but wonder that Christopher adds these pictures instead of describing them to get rid of his frustration and anger.

Pictures aren't the only weird things in the book. It just so happens that every chapter doesn't go in order of ascending numbers, but in prime numbers. Christopher has a very mathematical mind, and he proves to us many a times in the book how good he is. For fun, and to calm himself down, he squares the number two over and over again. At times it's rather scary that he can do it, and you wonder what it must be like to be like that. To be so capable of one thing - doing mathematics - and being so incapable of another thing - living a life. It's heart-breaking.

Christopher doesn't like strangers so whenever he's around people he gets his Swiss army knife blade ready in case they touch him. He never does stab them, but I really do think that he's capable of it. It's worrying because that's his protection. He can't do it any other way, and he doesn't find it odd or wrong. He says he can't go to prison for it because it's self defence because the person was trying to touch him. He really believes that too. He's so full of knowledge, he can quote so many books, and he knows so many general knowledge facts that it's scary. Even though he's not capable of living a life he's capable of so many other things. It seems it's impossible to be like that, and I thought it was, but I know now it isn't. This book has brought so many things to my awareness - that mostly being Asperger's Syndrome, which I now will definitely look up. But as I've already mentioned, don't you think it's sad that we have to have a book like this written so that it's brought to our attention? Shouldn't we be aware of this syndrome already and be helping? How many other syndromes are there out there that are similar to this that we don't know about? That we couldn't help sufferers of it because we don't know what to do. The least we can do is know how to help, because we can't do anything else.

And finally, I come to the writing. One of the best elements of the book. As I've mentioned its simplicity is its brilliance. Haddon, somehow or other, obviously through months if not years of research has managed to get into the mind of a boy who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome. He's managed to write an insightful, unbelievably fascinating novel that is one of the best books I've read in a long time, if not ever. Books like The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time don't come along very often, so we must cherish it like it's gold. Because, really, it is. To not read The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time is most certainly the biggest crime of all. To not learn about Asperger's Syndrome afterwards is an even bigger one. Go on - read it, and let it open your eyes to something you never knew happened.

I think good parts of Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time are Christopher's interesting and daring attitude. It gave you a new point of what an Autistic child thinks when a event like this happens to them. We saw that people with disabilities like Christopher have amazing talents like his math. We really enjoyed this book because of its suspense

The book that's had everyone talking this last year is most definitely The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time. Why? Well, above everything else it's different. It's insightful. It's passionate. It's simple. Sometimes you read a complicated book that dumfounds you. You just fall in love with it, with its all complicated bits, with all its difficult parts. You can feel the same way, sometimes, with a simple book. You, basically, fall in love with its simplicity. And that's why everyone's been talking about it. Because, it's one of those simple books that you just fall in love with.

I'd been meaning to read The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time for a long while. I first read a review of it back in October and instantly decided I loved the idea of it. I never got round to buying it then, but when the paperback came out I immediately added it to my Amazon basket. I usually tend to wait until my Amazon order is £25 or over so I can have free delivery, but I was desperate to read it. On a recent shopping trip to Tesco I found it there for a mere £3.73, so I came home, deleted it from my Amazon basket, and sat down and read it!

Immediately I was hooked. I honest and truly couldn't put it down. I read it all in one go from the first until the last page, absorbing every single word with eagerness. I loved it, just like everyone told me I would. Haddon managed to grip me from the beginning right until the end; unlike any other author has done so before. Even my favourite novelists haven't succeeded to have that effect on me. I think I can easily say, that The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time will go down on my top 5 best books of all time.

So, what is it all about? What makes it so good? Well there isn't an answer to why it's so good, the talent behind that is Mark Haddon. But, I can tell you what it's about. Christopher Boone has Asperger's Syndrome. His life revolves around maths and what colour cars he sees in the morning. He is innocence in its subtlest form. He lives with his Father. His Mother died of a heart attack. When he finds his neighbour - Mrs Shear's - dog dead in the garden with a garden fork sticking out of his stomach, he sets out to find who is the murderer. This leads him to many a revelation and a world that Christopher isn't used to. So, he decides (as does his helper Siobhan) that he should write a book about the events that occur after the dog's death. So, that's what he does. And that's The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time is described as a murder mystery novel. That angers me, because it's anything but that. Christopher doesn't really investigate at all. It just comes out who killed the dog. He asks a few questions at the beginning of the book, but he does not ask any further questions to anyone later on in the novel. To call it a murder mystery novel degrades it completely. Not because it's offensive to the book, but simply because it's not a murder mystery novel. It's insightful. Insightful into a boy's life that is so difficult you just can't imagine it. Not just for Christopher but for his Father too. I bet it's harder -much harder - for his Father than Christopher, because, really, Christopher is content with who he is. His Father has to watch him be how he is.

It's so sad to read, because at times you just find it heart-breaking. You sometimes forget, whilst reading, that Christopher isn't really made up. Yes, he's a fictional character but there are many people like him who suffer from this awful syndrome. It's awful to think that he is just an example of how they lead a life. It makes you feel guilty for ever complaining how hard life is, or how difficult it is to do something or other. Compare yourself to Christopher and you feel silly. He is basically someone who hasn't had the opportunity to live. He's just there. He's alive, breathing, talks; he does most things that are expected from someone. But he hasn't got a life. He hasn't, really, got anything to life for. And it's awful to think that there are other people just like him out there living a normal, daily life. And you have to read a book like this to learn about them. Silly, isn't it?

I often wondered when reading the book whether Christopher knew he was different. You only find out that he has Asperger's Syndrome from the blurb at the back of the book, he never mentions it in the book. So, does he know he's different? Of course he does, but it doesn't bother him. One poignant part in the book, I found, was when he had a dream at night. He dreamt that everyone apart from "people like him" were dead. Only "people like him" were still alive. The "people like him" he refers to are the people that suffer from the same syndrome as him. This is the only part in the book where Christopher points out he's actually different. It's also the only part where he shows us being different does bother him. Does hurt him. I found this part of the book very significant and relevant to the story.

Some people I've spoken to who've read the book complain about the swearing in it. Is it relevant, they ask? Totally. It's classed as a children's book (which I'll come to in a moment) but there is an edition available without the swearing. But to me, it is relevant anyway. Why? Well, because it shows how insignificant swearing is to him. It's words. It's nothing. He even refers to sex as "doing sex". It's totally innocent to him. It means nothing. If swearing is in his book, what the hell, swearing is in his book, that's what he feels. Christopher's tolerance for swearing is another thing that shows us just how different to us he really is.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time is classed as a children's book (as I've already mentioned). This again degrades it, in my opinion. It's written so simply, and beautifully, exactly how someone suffering from the syndrome would write it. I can't help but feel it's classed as a children's book just because of its simplicity. There are so many parts that children of a young age wouldn't understand. Would they get anything from it? Well, I don't believe anyone could read this and not get anything from it, but would the message be as strong as it would be if they read it at an older age? I don't think it would, and I think classing it as children's book merely makes people think it's written so simply not because that's how Christopher would write, but because it's aimed at children.

There are many pictures, diagrams and other things in the book that is so interesting and adds to its greatness. It makes you think that Christopher is desperate for you to see what he sees. At one stage he said.

"I drew a bus, that looked like this:"

And then there was a picture of a bus. It makes you think that perhaps Christopher added these in frustration. Perhaps he wanted you to see what he did, and couldn't bare not giving you the opportunity to see it as well. He mentions at times that he finds it hard to describe things, but Siobhan (his helper) has told him that you must have descriptive parts in a book, and that creates a picture in the readers' head. I can't help but wonder that Christopher adds these pictures instead of describing them to get rid of his frustration and anger.

Pictures aren't the only weird things in the book. It just so happens that every chapter doesn't go in order of ascending numbers, but in prime numbers. Christopher has a very mathematical mind, and he proves to us many a times in the book how good he is. For fun, and to calm himself down, he squares the number two over and over again. At times it's rather scary that he can do it, and you wonder what it must be like to be like that. To be so capable of one thing - doing mathematics - and being so incapable of another thing - living a life. It's heart-breaking.

Christopher doesn't like strangers so whenever he's around people he gets his Swiss army knife blade ready in case they touch him. He never does stab them, but I really do think that he's capable of it. It's worrying because that's his protection. He can't do it any other way, and he doesn't find it odd or wrong. He says he can't go to prison for it because it's self defence because the person was trying to touch him. He really believes that too. He's so full of knowledge, he can quote so many books, and he knows so many general knowledge facts that it's scary. Even though he's not capable of living a life he's capable of so many other things. It seems it's impossible to be like that, and I thought it was, but I know now it isn't. This book has brought so many things to my awareness - that mostly being Asperger's Syndrome, which I now will definitely look up. But as I've already mentioned, don't you think it's sad that we have to have a book like this written so that it's brought to our attention? Shouldn't we be aware of this syndrome already and be helping? How many other syndromes are there out there that are similar to this that we don't know about? That we couldn't help sufferers of it because we don't know what to do. The least we can do is know how to help, because we can't do anything else.

And finally, I come to the writing. One of the best elements of the book. As I've mentioned its simplicity is its brilliance. Haddon, somehow or other, obviously through months if not years of research has managed to get into the mind of a boy who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome. He's managed to write an insightful, unbelievably fascinating novel that is one of the best books I've read in a long time, if not ever. Books like The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time don't come along very often, so we must cherish it like it's gold. Because, really, it is. To not read The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time is most certainly the biggest crime of all. To not learn about Asperger's Syndrome afterwards is an even bigger one. Go on - read it, and let it open your eyes to something you never knew happened.

Matt Roberts 2004

Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time caught my attention in a book store and after reading the back the curiosity got the better of me and I had to buy it. Upon reading the first few chapters I realised I couldn't put the book down. If I wasn't told that Mark Haddon had wrote this book I would have been convinced it was written by an autistic child, with some of the book being overun by his attention to numbers and logic. Very realistic and a great insight into the simple yet complicated mind of an autistic child. Well worth reading, I think this is a book that is open to a wide genre. One word of warning don't be expecting an action packed book.