When a college friend of mine was here two weekends ago, we had a long conversation about our recently-loved book list. As a result, I loaned her my copy of The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and she told me to read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.Since I trust her judgment, and since we already owned it, I picked up Haddon’s debut novel the following evening and started to read. Moments later, I threw the book back onto the table, disgusted, and fussed at my friend – How do you expect me to read a book in which a dog is brutally stabbed and killed on the first page? Have you not met my two dogs?
She laughed at my dramatic outburst and told me to keep reading – it would all make sense. So I kept reading and soon found myself entangled in the intriguing life of an autistic teenage boy.
I spent a college summer as a teacher’s aide at a day-camp for developmentally handicapped children, many of whom were autistic. It was easily the most difficult and rewarding job I’ve ever held. Haddon also spent time (a good deal more than me) working with autistic children, and his knowledge and insight into the behaviors that mark that condition are impressive. Several times, I caught myself thinking, “That’s why that boy used to do that,” and I felt like I knew more about autism after reading this novel. I think Haddon was on-target and intuitive in his creation of Christopher Boone, the autistic protagonist.
Christopher is a fifteen year old who is influenced by the world in ways decidedly different than you or me. For example, he decides daily if it will be a good or bad day by using a simple formula – if he sees a yellow car on the way to school, it is a Bad Day, while three red cars in a row make it a Quite Good Day. A highly functional autistic savant, skilled in math and physics, he begins honing his creative side while writing a book that documents his investigation into the brutal slaying of his neighbor’s pet poodle.
The investigation, for Christopher, dredges up hidden family secrets that change his life in dramatic ways. He’s often reduced to silent hysteria by outside stimuli, and I felt oddly voyeuristic when reading his innermost thoughts. Was I invading his privacy? Regardless, I had little time to worry about that – the plot moves quickly and engagingly, making this both a fast and richly layered read.
Mark Haddon also has a very cool web site, filled with art and interesting information. He is a prolific children’s book author and has won plenty of awards – mostly for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Film rights have already been sold to Warner Brothers, and now I have to hope that the movie will do the novel justice. It’s a great novel, so the film’s got some big shoes (dust jackets? DVD covers?) to fill.
