Is in the process of screaming at her dissertation...it is not going as fast as it should be and edi...
Is in the process of screaming at her dissertation...it is not going as fast as it should be and editing takes too much time.
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This is a book that was rather unceremoniously dumped on me by a friend who told me that it was a 'must read'. But I have to admit a murder mystery about a dead dog did not inspire me with great confidence and I put it down again, only to pick it back up when another friend mentioned that if I wished to go into teaching it could actually be an interesting book to read. And so setting my natural misgivings to one side I started reading, and have to admit was pleasantly surprised.
Boring
= Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time Author: Mark Haddon Publisher: Random House Children's Books ISBN: 0-09-945676-1 Price: £6.99
Plot
Christopher John Francis Boone is a fifteen year old boy who can tell you all the countries in the world and their capital cities, a boy who can tell you all the prime numbers up to 7,507. Sounds like a genius, yes? Well, no, because Christopher has a problem with people, he cannot understand people. Animals yes, animals are easy; '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.' People however are more tricky, because emotions on humans are far more difficult to read, and this is because Christopher has Asperger's Syndrome, which is an autistic spectrum disorder. So the whole book is from his perspective. As the title of the book shows the book is based, particularly at the beginning, on the murder mystery of a dog named Wellington who has been murdered and Christopher is trying to work out who committed said 'murder'. However as the book
goes on the author is less concerned with the dog being killed than with how Christopher lives out his day to day life in a world where no one truly understands him, and where he does not truly understand them. Yes, you do find out who killed the dog but that is made into a completely side issue as you explore fully how Christopher's mind works, and the family dynamics that explode throughout the book. This appears to be the main aim of Mark Haddon's plot, right from the beginning he makes it clear that he knows that the murder of a dog will not catch and hold the readers attention, and so he makes the book into less of a murder mystery but an exploration of a young mans mind that most people wouldn't bother to try to explore. The family issues that Christopher is going through most 'normal' adolescents would find difficult enough to cope with, but for a young man with Asperger's, who hates change, can't cope with people touching him and has to work things through logically it makes it even worse.
Characters
Christopher: As I stated before, he is the main character in the book and the novel is from his perspective. His Asperger's makes it difficult for him to cope with the world around him, although there are several people helping him throughout. Christopher is a truly interesting character because the author has got the characteristics of an upper spectrum autistic child down to a fine art, which suggests that he has either done a lot of research into the topic or he has known one himself. I mean, one of the most telling parts of Christopher's psyche is very early on in the book: 'I rolled back onto the lawn and pressed my forehead to the ground again and made the noise Father calls groaning. I make this noise when there is too much information coming into my head from the outside world… The policeman took hold of my arm and lifted me onto my feet. I didn't like him touching me like this. And this is when I hit him.' Christopher is one of those characters who if you met him in real life I think most people would probably be driven insane by him, and trust me on this, I have worked with Asperger's children and really struggled to keep my temper on several occasions! In fact, on at least one occasion had to keep myself from strangling one of them. They seem rude, ill-mannered and difficult to cope with, and even knowing that it is not their fault does not always make it any easier! To sum this up, if you were a stranger on the tube station who saw a young teenage lad curled up in a ball groaning, you might just go and ask him if he's ok or needs any help, yes? However, when that teenage boy says 'Stay further away…I've got a Swiss Army Knife and it has a saw blade and it could cut someone's fingers off', it does kind off put a different perspective on things. Christopher is not normal, and on some occasions not even rational, he hates the colour yellow…for no reason other than the fact that it is yellow! Likewise he has good days and bad days purely dependant on how many red or yellow cars he passes on the way to school, 5 red cars is a super good day and 5 yellow cars makes it a black day where he doesn't speak to anyone, doesn't eat anything and Takes No Risks. This doesn't seem very logical, and isn't, and for a boy who spends his entire time working in mathematics, makes very little sense. But that is one of those things that Mark Haddon has got down to absolute perfection, although Asperger's syndrome sufferers tend to see the world in a highly logical manner, there are certain idiosyncrasies that make them individual people…you just need to learn how to cope with them.
The father: Christopher refers to him as Father, and to be honest you can't blame him. Much like Christopher's mother, his dad has great difficulty dealing with him, and cannot always understand why Chris is so different to other children. He loses his temper, yells at him and acts in ways that just won't help when dealing with an Asperger's child (even I know that!), and yet you cannot really fault him. He acts in the way that most other rational adults would on meeting someone who acts in ways which go WAY out from their normal expectations. But equally, it is his father who has stuck by him when his mother abandoned him because she couldn't cope, I know that some of his methods of coping and dealing with both Christopher and the family situation are far from reasonable ways of acting, but you cannot truly blame the man. He is doing the best he can in what seems like an impossible situation.
Other characters: There are plenty of other characters but it is difficult to say a lot about any of them without giving the story line away, and many of them are minor characters who are only used to show that Chris's reactions to other people are not what we would expect from a normal adolescent.
The flaws
My main complaint would be the sheer amount of maths in the book, I can understand that this is a main part of Chris's mental workings, but unfortunately it is not part of my psyche! I don't do maths if anyone hasn't noted that, and as soon as someone starts throwing mathematic formula and equations at me I just lose the plot, and I cannot be the only one in the world who does so…but this book does throw maths at you, and regularly. Whether in graphs or just explanations, the working of Christopher's mind is so rooted in the scientific that it is difficult to do it in any other way. But that does mean that people like me sit there, staring blankly at a page for a few minutes before shrugging and moving on without understanding a word that has been written. Now this wouldn't be annoying if there was only one or two of these points, but they seem to permeate the book like a single mouldy apple in a fresh fruit bowl.
And as a side point, on occasions it does seem to be 'cringe-comedy' where you are only laughing because you are so grateful that it wasn't you in that situation. And with the smile comes a sigh of relief…
Conclusion
A book well worth reading, particularly if you have an interest in teaching or working with autistic children, as Mark Haddon has actually managed to show an autistic child's brain and the way they work things through in a way that very few other authors have managed…personally I'd recommend it to anyone, as I believe it is a book that is not worshipped as much as it should be! But I think that may be because I was solely impressed at how Haddon had managed to get inside the minds of both Christopher and the people who come into contact with him.
On the plus side it's only 268 pages, will take you what 2-3 hours at tops, and is a well spent waste of that amount of time!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Stunningly well-written, genuinely interesting, clever and often amusing, superb lead character, easy to read Disadvantages: Tails off just slighty towards the end
Mar 19th, 2008
exceptional by (21%):
very helpful by (79%):
