About Curious Incidents

Back in college, my friend told me to read The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time and I never heeded her advice until 2011 came knocking. Back in Germany, a friend of mine told me that this book was just strange and scary and so I heard so many different opinions without even knowing WHAT the book is about. I decided to get myself a copy through Amazon (which by the way is like my favorite book shopping place on earth), and finally decide for myself.

I was off to a slow start because the book was a draggy read. Mark Haddon tells the story of a boy named Christopher Boone who has Asperberger's Syndrome. The fact that he has Asperger's is however never said. Christopher tells the story of a dog named Wellington who was killed during the night with a pitchfork. Wellington was the neighbors dog and Christopher was the first to find the dead dogmaking him the prime suspect. That is why he embarks on the adventure of finding the real killer.

The journey however leads him to see and uncover so much more. He discovers that his mother did not die but has left him and his dad for another man who happened to be the husband of the neighbor whose dog was killed....WHEW! So the neighbor started an affair with Chris' father and when she broke it off, his father killed the dog. This makes Christopher scared and he finds the letters of his mother that he never got because his dad hid them. He then travels to London and finds her all by himself.

Christopher's way of seing things is simple. He doesn't pick up on feelings or sarcasm or expressions. He understands just the words that are said to him and not the underlying implications or meanings. Having Asperger's he also doesn't like to be touched or have many people around him. He also makes his day dependent on whether he sees red cars or brown cars because he hates the color brown.

There are many interesting, insightful and peculiar things that Haddon did with his character and that allows us a genuine look into a person with such a syndrome. Even though the story was off to a slow start, it still captured me and kept me thinking what will be next. A different read, perhaps not even a light one, but definitely one to ponder upon.

Excerpt from "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," by Mark Haddon:

I decided that I was going to find out who killed Wellington even tough Father had told me to stay out of other people's business. This is because I do not always do what I am told. And this is because when people tell you what to do it is usually confusing and does not make sense. For example, people often say 'Be quiet,' but they don't tell you how long to be quiet for. Or you see a sign which says KEEP OFF THE GRASS but it should say KEEP OFF THE GRASS AROUND THIS SIGN or KEEP OFF ALL THE GRASS IN THIS PARK because there is lots of grass you are allowed to walk on.Also people break rules all the time. For example, Father often drives at over 30 mph in a 30 mph zone and sometimes he drives when he has been drinking and often doesn't wear his seatbelt when he is driving his van. And in the Bible it says Thou shalt bit kill but there were the Crusaders and two World Wars and the Gulf War and tehre were Christians killing people in all of them. Also I don't know what Father means when he says 'Stay out of other people's business' because I do lots of things with other people, at school and in the shop and on the bus, and his job is going into other people's houses and fixing their boilers and their heating. And all of these things are other people's business.