The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

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Editorial reviews

From Amazon.co.uk
The title The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (or the curious incident of the dog in the night-time as it appears within the book) is an appropriate one for Mark Haddon's ingenious novel both because of its reference to that most obsessive and fact-obsessed of detectives, Sherlock Holmes, and because its lower-case letters indicate something important about its narrator.

Christopher is an intelligent youth who lives in the functional hinterland of autism--every day is an investigation for him because of all the aspects of human life that he does not quite get. When the dog next door is killed with a garden fork, Christopher becomes quietly persistent in his desire to find out what has happened and tugs away at the world around him until a lot of secrets unravel messily.

Haddon makes an intelligent stab at how it feels to, for example, not know how to read the faces of the people around you, to be perpetually spooked by certain colours and certain levels of noise, to hate being touched to the point of violent reaction. Life is difficult for the difficult and prickly Christopher in ways that he only partly understands; this avoids most of the obvious pitfalls of novels about disability because it demands that we respect--perhaps admire--him rather than pity him. --Roz Kaveney

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Daily Telegraph
'A beautifully written book...Warm and often funny'

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Time Out
'Remarkable...Impressive...Rewarding'

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Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha
'Agonizingly honest...Vivid and memorable. I advise you to buy two copies'

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The Scotsman
'Believe the hype: A brilliant, heart-warming book'

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Book Description
'Wondrous-Brilliantly inventive, full of dazzling set pieces- Not simply the most original novel I've read in years-it's also one of the best' The Times

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Product Description
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's, a form of autism. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour's dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down.

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Synopsis
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's, a form of autism. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour's dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down.

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From the Back Cover
On my way to school I watch the cars going past the bus and remember their colours.

3 red cars in a row mean that it is going to be a Quite Good Day. 4 red cars mean that it is going to be a Good Day. 5 red cars mean that it is going to be a Super Good Day. And 4 yellow cars in a row mean that it is going to be a Black Day, which is a day when I don't speak to anyone and don't eat my lunch and Take No Risks, because yellow is the colour of custard and double yellow lines and Yellow Fever which is a deadly disease.

Fifteen-year-old Christopher has a photographic memory. He understands maths. He understands science. What he can't understand are other human beings.

When he finds his neighbour's dog, Wellington, lying dead on a neighbour's lawn, he decides to track down the killer and write a murder mystery novel about it. In doing so, however, he uncovers other mysteries that threaten to bring his whole world crashing down around him.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is an astonishing novel - funny, sad and utterly unputdownable.

5 red cars mean that it is going to be a Super Good Day

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About the Author
Mark Haddon is an author, illustrator and screenwriter who has written fifteen books for children and won two BAFTAs. He lives in Oxford.

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Customer reviews

review by: steven_wigmore date: 2008-08-31 rating:
Absolute rubbish.
This book is bloody awful. The entire central premise is patronising gibberish. If this book was written by an aspergic person about his life it would excuse the bad writing. If it was an intelligent, well written explanation of an aspergic child's life then it would be alright but it's not. This book is poorly written gibberish with the pretense of being written by an Aspie to cover up its bad writing. This is so patronising it's unbelievable. If this was done of any other social group there would be howls of protest and quite right to. It's no more subtle than a white person putting on blackface for a good 'ole minstrel show.

The worst thing is that this isn't even a particularly accurate portrayal of an aspergic person. It's a ridiculous caricature with a generic group of various "asperigc" traits thrown together all in one, reinforcing the same old stereotypes (Rain Man) about this cross between an asperic/autistic savant, as though most aspergic people were savants. The plot itself is so thin that it does nothing to make up for the pretentious but yet awful writing. Oh yeah, also it gets resolved half way through and after that the book has no point.

The sheer volume of ridiculous asides are an annoyance and they also compltely fail. If the author really wanted to present Christopher as some kind of mathematical genius he may have bothered doing more than the most basic math. Prime Numbers? Who cares. Calculating prime numbers is trivial for anyone who can manage times tables. We're to take this as proof that this kid is a mathematical genius? And in the second half it gets even more bizarre with large parts of this already thin book taken up by random rants against religion. This becomes even more ridiculous when you learn that these are in fact the authors own views. Wow, using your "exploration of life from the perspective of an autism sufferer" to parrot your tedious philosophy, how incredibly subtle. So we're meant to believe that Christopher is incredibly intelligent and obssessed with math and logic and this inevitably leads him to the necessity of science and atheism to go along with them and this also happens to be the author's view, what a subtle point. This is not to mention the repeated and pointless profanity in this apparent children's book. Please. Do not buy this book. Just save your money. Buy something good, like candy, instead.

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review by: date: 2008-07-30 rating:
Strange and wonderful
Written from the perspective of an autistic teenager named Christopher, this wonderful and engaging book is short, easy to read, full of insight, and touching. You will, however, find it irritating at times. But then, what great book isn't?

The plot revolves around the murder of a neighbor's poodle, rather gruesomely discovered, by the teenager. He trys to wrap his mind around who could have done this, and it will come as quite a surprise to the reader who actually committed the deed. But what is even more remarkable is Christopher's way of thinking--totally unlike a "normal" person yet somehow making sense. Filled with puzzles and odd references, this is a book to keep you thinking. It's also terribly entertaining.

"Curious Incident" has to be, hands down, the most unusual book of this or any other century. It's rare to come across a book that is so unique in form, function, and emotion, that if you haven't read it, you will probably feel slightly irritated that you've waited this long. I've also read the authors "A Spot of Bother" which I liked, and "Barring Some Unforeseen Accident" which was totally great and strange as well. But of the books I've most recently read, "Curious" wins the contest. If you read one book this year, make it this one.

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review by: date: 2008-07-28 rating:
Haddon is a genius
Short story and actually rather simple. But it isn't the plot that keeps you reading this in one go. It is the perspective. Haddon presents us the observations and thinking of an autistic 15 year old. Love it!

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review by: date: 2008-07-13 rating:
Interesting for its insight but not really a gripping story.
I enjoyed this book, not really for the story, but more for the insight it provided into the thought processes behind the behaviour of people with Asperger's Syndrome. Having studied the condition briefly in psychology, it really brought to life all the repercussions Asperger's Syndrome has on both the person and those around them. The most saddening aspect of this book was to watch the thwarted attempts Christopher's father makes to connect with his son after his lies have been revealed. I also learnt a few intriguing mathematical conundrums along the way which definitely added interest for me! Because the book was written from Christopher's point of view it is not really a literary accomplishment by traditional standards, but the way in which Mark Haddon convincingly writes from Christopher's perspective is definitely empathetic and thoughtful. I would recommend this to those seeking an insight into the condition but perhaps not if you are after a gripping story with literary prowess.


review by: Morrigan date: 2008-07-08 rating:
Very interesting
While this is not the most amazing book I have ever read it is certainly worth reading. It is different from anything I have ever encountered before and probably ever will again. It's a very easy book to read but still with lots going on with some lovely plot twists, funny moments and saddness all mixed in together.

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