Book Review | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Christopher Boone likes math and science, but human emotions and social behavior are a mystery to him. He seems to be a genius, and yet fixates on aspects of life and gives them meaning in a particular way. For instance, he dislikes yellow and brown colors in an extreme way, and when he eats curry, it's with food coloring in it for that reason. It's not explicitly written in the book, but clearly Christopher is an autistic boy, and that's what makes The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon a special book.

The boy lives with his father; his mother passed away. He follows his routine. The one night the neighbor's dog, Wellington, is killed, and Christopher becomes obsessing with solving this mystery just like his favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes, would do. That's when his world shifts completely and the order he so likes turns to chaos. Being unable to perceive reality in a way other than literally, Christopher slowly opens his eyes to what was there all along, and soon the mystery of the dog is solved and another arises from the chaos.

The story is written from his perspective, with plenty of detail as to how he portrays the world in his head. There are plenty of curiosities and personality quirks spread throughout the book in drawings, lists, anecdotes. It makes for a pleasant read, but at times tiresome. This is one intense 15-year old. His adventures make him understand adults better, and his writing made me understand the world of autism a bit better too. 

Although its themes are universal, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a tale like no other because it goes beyond such themes. Love and family and understanding are all wrapped and sometimes hidden inside a mystery story that turns into a personal quest for truth. It's not a universal truth. It's a kid's truth, but nonetheless magical like a fairy tale, because his way of seeing the world is so unique.

All that said, it took me a while to actually finish reading the book. Even though all the details were interesting, they also meant meandering through sometimes convoluted ramblings apart from the main story, and the part about the dog turned out to be just a fraction of the accounts. Maybe what I perceive as flaws in the novel are actually my own barriers to it. Who knows. For all its qualities, the book was almost exhaustive to read at times, and by the middle point forward I was wondering when was it going to end.

I'm certainly glad I chose to read it, though. But maybe I should have read it earlier.

Where can you purchase this book?
On the Book Depository from €7.03.

Vanessa