The Prime Reasons Why I Enjoyed Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time:

2. Death broken down into its molecular importance.

3. Clouds, with chimneys and aerials impressed upon them, and their potential as alien space crafts.

5. Black Days and Yellow cars.

7. Red food coloring for Indian cuisine.

11. Christopher's reasons for loving The Hound of the Baskervilles and disdaining Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

13. White lies.

17. The patience of Siobhan

19. Father’s frustration, and Father's love.

23. “I reasoned that....”

29. Metaphors are lies and similes are not.

31. The intimacy of fanning out the fingers and pressing the hand of another.

37. Christopher punches a policeman and later decides he doesn't like policeman much after all.

41. My empathy for Father's pain.

43. Mystification through demystification.

47. Father admitting one of his “crimes” before he was caught.

53. Did I mention Christopher?

59. A Level Maths.

61. The London Underground as a scary, thrilling adventure.

67. Toby the rat.

71. Wellington forked.

73. The book has yet to be discovered by Oprah.

79. Behavioral Problems

83. Maps

89. Prime numbers = Prime chapters

97. That every day life, if seen from a certain perspective, can provide the conflict for a compelling novel.

Update: my review may not be interesting, but this one definitely is, so please read it if you read the book or plan to read the book. The author created a negative stereotype of Asperger's and autism and offended the Asperger's community. He's not an expert, has no experience with these disorders and did no research (Mark Haddon's blog). I think this is really important to know when you read the book.



I'm not enthusiastic about this book.
I kept asking myself this question : does this book really do justice to autistic children ? I had my doubts.
No doubt the thought-processes of Christopher were sometimes accurate, but I think it was overdone most of the time.
What also bothered me was the improbability that an autistic kid, who was only allowed to go to the shop at the end of the road on his own, and who has rage and panic seizures regularly, would have a Swiss Army Knife in his pocket all the time. No way!

A long time ago, I read a memoir written by a girl who has autism, and I really loved it. It was not a light read, and it left me emotionally drained, as if her life-story was about my own child. In comparison with that book, The Curious Incident was rather a light read that didn't get me emotionally involved.
I would recommend this other book to everyone but the problem is I don't remember it's title or it's author. I've done a search and maybe it was this book, but I'm not sure: Nobody Nowhere: The Extraordinary Autobiography of an Autistic
While reading the reviews for that book, I stumbled on this review :

"I read this book when my own smart autistic son was very young, and was overwhelmed by it -- by the writing, by her memories, by her perspective on herself, and by her journey. It is a story of a brilliant woman trapped inside the odd shell autism creates, suffering inside it alone (and at the hands of her mother) and then beating her way out of it and learning, through trial and error, how to be herself. I don't have it -- I must have given it away -- or I would consult it to be more specific. But I have always kept it in mind as my son and I grow together, trying to figure out which extraordinary parts of him he needs relief from, and which are essential to who he is. All parents of children with autism want to hear the true voice of their kids who are locked inside their autism, and hearing Donna Williams' voice confirms that there are unimaginable riches of character and intelligence and sensitivity, even in the most apparently disconnected. This book is the reason I HATED The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime".

Well this review assured me that it's okay to write a negative review for this book, although I didn't hate the book, it only left me feeling cold.

3/10

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time revolves around Christopher, an autistic teen who discovers his neighbor's dead dog one night. He is a genius in that he knows all of the prime numbers up to 7,057 and can solve logic puzzles quickly and efficiently; however, he can't stand the colors yellow or brown or the thought of different foods touching on his plate. As Chris investigates the death of the neighborhood dog, he stumbles upon something that may change his life.

I loved how Mark Haddon maintained the consistency of Christopher's voice and how he didn't sacrifice the integrity of his character to make him any more likable. There are times when I wished I could snap Chris out of his stupor, but those moments made the book more realistic. I also liked how Haddon incorporated subtle details in the story to exemplify Chris's character even more - like the prime-numbered chapters and the appendix at the end.

While the book made me think, I felt like the second half of it floundered in that it didn't have a point. It showed Chris's character and thought process, but what else? The story was okay but in terms of broader theme or proceeding beyond the baseline intellectual appeal I didn't think it was mind-blowing.

Mark Haddon deserves all of his accolades for writing a book that delves deeply into the mindset of someone who doesn't fit into society. I would recommend this fascinating read to almost everyone, even if it is arduous at times. Can't wait to discuss this one at book club - there are myriad things to talk about.

Also, for those interested in a fantastic story about a character that has a form of autism/Asperger's, I highly recommend Marcelo in the Real World. That book touched my heart and I think it'll appeal to fans of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

*review cross-posted on my blog, the quiet voice.

Overview
First person tale of Christopher, a fifteen-year-old with Asperger's Syndrome or high-functioning autism, and a talent for maths, who writes a book (this one - sort of - very post modern) about his investigations of the murder of a neighbour's dog. He loves Sherlock Holmes and is amazingly observant of tiny details, but his lack of insight into other people's emotional lives hampers his investigation. Nevertheless, he has to overcome some of his deepest habits and fears, and he also uncovers some unexpected secrets.

It is primarily a YA book, but there is more than enough to it to make it a worthwhile adult read as well.

ASD or not?
Neither autism nor Asperger's is mentioned by name in the book, but the back cover of my 2003 first edition has this quote from neurologist Oliver Sacks that does:
"Mark Haddon shows great insight into the autistic mind." Photo HERE.

Prime Chapters and Structural Quirks
The structure of the book (chapter numbers are all primes; inclusion of maths puzzles and diagrams) and narrative style (attention to detail, excessive logic, avoidance of metaphor) reflect Christopher's mindset and way of viewing life. It is peppered with snippets of maths and explanations of his condition: how it affects him, and what coping strategies he adopts. The effect is plausibly stilted and occasionally breathless, which is reminiscent of people I know who are on the autistic spectrum and tallies with my limited reading about the condition.

Honest but Unreliable Narrator?
Christopher's condition makes him very literal - something he is aware of. He can analyse a joke, but still not "get" it. Truth is paramount, so he hates situations where he can't tell the truth (e.g. for politeness) and indeed the fact that "everything you tell is a white lie" because you can never give a fully comprehensive answer to anything. He also hates metaphors (even "the word metaphor is a metaphor", meaning "carrying something from one place to another"), but he doesn't mind similes because they are not untrue. Christopher's feelings about metaphors are highly pertinent to a very different book, China Mieville's wonderful Embassytown (see my review HERE), which is about how minds shape language and how language shapes minds, and focuses on the relationship between similes, truth and lies.

Many novels are about uncovering what is true, but Christopher's quest takes the idea to a deeper level, and even though we know this narrator is almost pathologically truthful, his condition means his observations sometimes miss the real truth of a situation.

There is plenty of humour, and it usually arises from Christopher's naive misunderstandings of situations and the conflict between his lack of embarrassment and desire to be unnoticed by unfamiliar people.

Logic and Truth
Christopher loves maths because it is safe, straightforward and has a definite answer, unlike life. He's also good at explaining some aspects, ending an explanation of calculating primes with "Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away".

His apparent deviations from logic are justified with ingenious logic. For example, having favourite and hated colours reduces choice and thus stress, counteracting the effect of his inability to filter or prioritise: he notices (and remembers) every detail of everything, and can rewind it at will, whereas other people's brains are filled with imaginary stuff. He is a little like his hero Sherlock Holmes, who is quoted saying "The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance observes". Similarly, defining a good or bad day on the basis of how many red or yellow cars is no more illogical than an office-bound person's mood being dictated by the weather.

All of this means animals are a better bet than humans: "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 are more of a mystery: when having a conversation, people look at him to understand what he's thinking, but Christopher can't do likewise. For him "it's like being in a room with a one-way mirror in a spy film". Love is even more unfathomable: "Loving someone is helping them when they get into trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth, and Father [does lots of things for me]... which means that he loves me".

Comparisons
I reread this during a rather stressful journey, including the passages when Christopher is making a stressful journey. It helped me empathise with him - to the extent that it exacerbated my own stress!

It's worth comparing this with:

* Iris Murdoch's The Word Child, whose main character has tacit Asperger's tendencies. See my review HERE.

* Yōko Ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor, which is also about finding number patterns in everyday life, and involves a protagonist whose brain does not work like other people's. See my review HERE.

I like this book very much and here are 11 curious facts about it:

★ The chapters are numbered, but not like 1, 2, 3, 4, … but by using the prime numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, … and there are 51 chapters in this book, which is also a prime number.

★ The page numbers appear on the bottom center of each page in little circles and they look like this: ① ② ③ . . .

★ The page numbers run from 1 to 268 in the regular chapters and from 269 to 271 in the appendix. The appendix has 4 pages. Conclusion: The last page number, 272, is missing. Therefore the last page number you can actually see in this book is 271, which is a prime number.

★ The first chapter – the one with the number 2 – starts on page ①, so the book’s title, dedication, front matter etc are not numbered like in almost any other book.

★ If you make a table of all the chapter numbers next to the number of the page on which the chapters start you will see that there are pairs in which the page number is also a prime number. I counted 11 of those pairs, which is also a prime number:


★ There are three chapters (199, 229, 233) for which the chapter number is smaller than the page number. For the rest the chapter number is greater than the page number. The largest difference between chapter number and page number is 35 (chapter 149 which starts on page 114) and the graph of all the numbers looks like this:


★ If you like to see a proof of why you can never move a tile beyond the fourth horizontal line in the game of Conway’s Soldiers (pages 181-183 in the book) you can read about it on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway&...

★ I don’t like the timetable at the beginning of chapter 193 (on page 192) very much because it says that Christopher cleans his teeth at 7:20 a.m. and has his breakfast afterwards at 7:40 a.m. and that he also doesn’t clean his teeth at all before going to bed at 9:30 p.m.!

★ I tried to solve the two quadratic equations from page 201:
0 = 437x² + 103x + 11
0 = 79x² + 43x + 2089
I found that they don’t have real solutions. There are complex ones, of course, but I don’t think those actually count here. I wish the author had picked some other equations, like this one:
0 = 10x² + 220x - 4080

★ The narrator’s first name Christopher and last name Boone have 11 and 5 letters respectively, both of which are prime numbers.

★ I read this book for the second time now and I finished it the first time 3137 days ago and that is also a prime number.

n  n
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Very, very good. Imagine Rain Man deciding to solve a mystery, and that sums up a good part of the story. It was an incredible look into autism, and I really enjoyed it. Plus, it's a fairly quick read - I had no trouble finishing it in about 2 days.

A fair warning, though: the main character, Christopher, really likes Sherlock Holmes and at one point in the story talks about The Hound of the Baskervilles. He reveals every single plot point of the story, so if you haven't read it and don't want the ending ruined for you, read The Hound of the Baskervilles first, then read Mark Haddon's book.

I'm reading many types of novels, but I find myself being most absorbed by stories where people need to overcome obstacles within themselves in order to resolve or come to terms with the obstacles surrounding their physical life. This one is exactly that.

The book is an amazing tale about a high functioning autistic savant whose parents are behaving foolishly. Christopher, the autistic, is the narrator and his problems with living are astronomically complicated, but his parents are also suffering through difficulties which while not on the same scale as their son are also complicated. All three have to struggle with their own natures to actually solve anything, but in the consequent learning to quell their inner voices for better functioning it does not mean they get what they wanted. It's an unfair compromise with Reality, and Reality imposes the final terms and boundaries of their hopes. Even though Christopher is the one diagnosed as 'special needs' it's obvious his parents are struggling with the special needs that come from living with a kid far different from ordinary children.

Christopher is high maintenance and there do not seem to be any rewards in parenting such a child. He requires abnormal behavior from everyone around him that must be in a certain regulated and regimated fashion that soothes him enough to not act out. His parents need his affection and love, but he can't tolerate their looking at him or touching him, much less any emotions.

The book is supposedly Christopher's journal so the reader soon gets a read on who Christopher is. He is charming in an odd way, and he is obviously so helpless, but he cannot comprehend the entirety of his deficits or the serious handicapping of his dream to be an astronaut. Although he cannot bear emotions from anyone he is not unemotional. Anyone with empathy feels Christopher's agonies but he cannot be consoled by empathy on any level. His favorite sleeping dream is when he walks an earth where he is the only person alive. This is not a person to love, yet his parents adore him while at the same time tearing their lives to pieces by their unrequited love for him. It is a desperate existence for all of this family, but nothing can be done except to bear it, handling each Autistic meltdown with the only response that works: waiting it out patiently sitting nearby until it's over.

I could not do this, raise a child this functionally broken without any reward or affection or gratefulness. Even dogs can like and love back, enjoy petting or want to be with you - none of which is something Christopher can give or do. However, these parents never stop loving their son.

The Special Needs Counselor is the one person who helps Christopher understand how to share his life as much as he can, which is little better than understanding how different people are from him and that he must tolerate their presence without instigating or resorting to violence. He learns phrases that are meaningless to him, such as "how are you today" simply because he has learned these things minimize his contact with people. To not be polite extends the always unwelcome interest of all persons in his vicinity.

The parents are not special people except in their love for their unloving child. They are blue collar, not particularly sophisticated or wealthy. The son baffles them. In their sorrow and disappointment, which they cannot verbalize, they attempt to soothe themselves with alcohol and sex but find themselves once the temporary diversion is over in the same depressing reality. There is no cure, only palliatives.

This book is well-written and imagined, and I could not put it down. Christopher's mind is as illuminated as one would want from a good book. Strong in tone, the novel enlightens readers about the cruel inescapable cage the handicapped child and his parents must learn to endure, finding little help except for whatever resources they can discover within themselves and if lucky, in the community.

[7/10]

Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.

Fifteen year old Christopher has major difficulties understanding human speech patterns and human emotions, so he finds refuge in the cold equations of advanced mathematics, in scientific papers based of facts instead of emotions and in the ocassional murder mystery novel that uses logic to solve mysteries.

We meet Christopher at a moment of crisis: his parents divorce has uprooted the strict routines that make his existence bearable. When the young man discovered the dead body of a neighbourhood dog in his backyard, he decides to emulate his idol Sherlock Holmes and investigate the murder, writing down the clues and his logical deductions in a private journal / novel.

>>><<<>>><<<

I have come late to the party with this very popular novel and, to be honest, I was mostly disappointed in the journey. I thought the author did a poor job of accurately representing the autistic personality disorder and was twisting the facts around based on the needs of the plot, with little concern for consistency. I know I am nitpicking through the text, but Christopher’s issues with metaphors and similes come and go at random. Similarly, his agoraphobia, violent reaction to strangers and self-control appear and disappear according to plot convenience.

Furthest away in the sky were lots of little white clouds which looked like fish scales or sand dunes which had a very regular pattern.

In the end, I got reconciled with Mark Haddon and with Christopher after I finished the book, when I read in an interview with the author that his intention was not to analyze the medical condition, into which he had done little research, but to illustrate the impact autism and other mental disabilities have on families and friends, the need for patience and understanding in caring for the special needs of persons who struggle with a lot of the things we take for granted.

We all make mistakes, Christopher. You, me, your mum, everyone. And sometimes they’re really big mistakes. We’re only human.

As such, I conclude that Mark Haddon has done a decent, necessary job of putting the issue into discussion and I am thankful for my friends from the book reading group who picked the title for a monthly read.

Lots of things are mysteries. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an answer to them. It’s just that scientists haven’t found the answer yet.

Instead of criticizing minor plot holes or inconsistencies, I prefer to close my review with my favorite quote from the novel, another necessary appeal to fight ignorance and malice with critical thinking and with kindness.

Sometimes I think I’ve been living under a rock. I just finished “a thumping good read” …and checked the year it was written thinking it was probably 2016 or something like that…2003!!! I guess it was a heavy rock. ☹

Mark Haddon prior to this book worked with autistic individuals. The protagonist, Christopher, is an autistic young man. I have a suspicion a number of reviewers will comment on the book and whether he was accurate or not in depicting Christopher. I think he was…and I know there are many different strata of autism. However, I have a lot of respect for Oliver Sacks, the brilliant neurologist who wrote a number of very good books (The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat)…and he had this to say: A brilliant autism novel has been overdue-and this is it! The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is delightful. Mark Haddon shows great insight into the autistic mind, and he brings his young narrator protagonist quite wonderfully to life. I found it very moving, very plausible-and very funny.” (very italicized for emphasis).

In my reviews I try to avoid spoilers so I will just say a couple of things (well now that I look back at my review I guess it is several!).

I thought the use of using prime numbers for chapter numbers was extremely clever (I started out with Chapter 2 and thought the bookseller had torn out a page!)

The drawings were extremely clever.

The use of Sherlock Holmes and his powers of deduction/investigatory work was a nice touch.

In terms of what happened to the dog in the night – I did not see that coming but when things were explained it made perfect sense.

I was captivated by Christopher’s logic/outlook on life – I learned a lot from him.

Christopher sometimes did not have an easy time of things – a number of things disturbed him. And I felt for him. I also empathized with his mom and dad.

I thought the plot line was superb. It revealed the thought processes of Christopher when he was scared, confused, and happy. I thought this blurb in the inner cover of the dustjacket put it really well: “And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon’s choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotion. The effect is dazzling, making for a novel that is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing are a mind that perceives the world literally.”

Then there’s this quote by Christopher: “I think people believe in heaven because they don’t like the idea of dying, because they want to carry on living and they don’t like the idea that other people will move into their house and put their things in the rubbish.”

His explanation of how we read when we scan a book (are yes moving rapidly back and forth and how do we process the stimuli (pp. 116-118) – very provocative at least to me.

Christopher makes use of the LONDON AZ Street Atlas and Index, Geographers’ A-Z Map Company. This is a later edition of a street atlas/map compendium that Phyllis Pearsall first created by walking the streets of London circa 1936 and is the subject of a fascinating read, Mrs. P’s Journey by Sarah Hartley (Simon and Schuster, 2001). I really liked that book…

And I loved this book! It made my day.

I read this one twice - once for myself, and the second time for discussion with my local library book club. I know there is much controversy out there about this author's lack of personal experience with autism, but books like this one really helped bring awareness of the issues facing people with autism, and their family members.

I really enjoyed the story and the mystery solving. Also, the father's devotion to his son was so touching. Good grief, I thought to myself. Sometimes you can push a person only so far before they explode and find they've done something totally out of character. A really good read, which paved the way for so many other novels on the same subject.

This book I read in a day. I was in a Chapters bookstore in Toronto (that's like Barnes and Noble to the Americans in the crowd) and anyway I was just browsing around, trying to kill time. When suddenly I saw this nice display of red books with an upturned dog on the cover. Attracted as always to bright colours and odd shapes, I picked it up. It's only about 250 pages or so. I read the back cover and was intrigued. I flipped through the pages and noticed that it had over One Million chapters. I was doubly intrigued.

So I walked over to the far wall of the bookstore to sit and begin to read a few pages. I always do this to ensure that I don't waste what little money I have on a book possessing nothing more than a flashy cover. (I do the same at the cinema - if I don't like the first 20 minutes, I get a refund. Restaurants, too: if I don't like the first ten bites, I walk out on the bill).

This is a book written by a Child Developmental Psychologist - I think that's the right term... - anyway, a doctor who works with mentally or physically challenged youngsters. The novel itself is a first person tale written by a high-functioning, mentally challenged boy in England who wakes up one morning to find his neighbor's dog dead on his lawn. The boy's teacher suggests he should write about the incident, which he eagerly sets out to do. So we have his first "novel", "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time". He plays Inspector and tries to solve the mystery as Sherlock Holmes would do...

Of course, if he's going to write a book, that means he can take control. He hates the way other books have chapter numbers that increase sequentially (1,2,3). He prefers prime numbers and will number his chapters in sequential primes - hence, by the end of the book, you're reading chapter 123,314,124 or whatever (I ain't no math guy ;)

Now then, he also writes about other things in his life and through his perspective you get some tear-jerking moments of true, unobstructed humanity: the way his parents broke up because of his state, how he has all these dreams about being someone great and going to a top college, even though you know that his situation will never really allow it.

Anyway. I read this book cover to cover sitting on the floor of that Chapters bookstore. By the end of it I was absolutely bawling my eyes out. Never cried so much in my life. In fact, as I type this and think back on that story, I'm dripping on my keyboard (and I'm at my office!). However - these are tears of joy. The boy does it. He can do anything. It's the most uplifting book I've ever read.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels anything deep down inside.

I must have been recommended this book annually. Considering the rate at which I devour books, it is a shame that I didn't take those recommendations to heart until recently. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is unlike most books that you'll find at your local shop on the subject of autism. Our story follows the exceptionally unique narrator Christopher Boone as he tries to unravel the mystery of who killed a dog on his street. While the concept sounds like a children's mystery novel, the entire concept is elevated by Christopher's narration which provides a distinctive view into the mind of an individual with autism. The chapters are not presented in sequential numbers, rather they are presented as ascending prime numbers (Christopher quite enjoys math). Occasionally, Christopher's sparse descriptive passages are supplemented by small drawings, graphs and figures. Christopher struggles with the overwhelming societal rules that everyone else seems to be following with ease. Quirks like this appear throughout the book and help establish Christopher as one of the most stylistically impressive narrators in recent memory.

Despite Christopher's protestations early in the novel that he is unable to tell a joke, the novel is filled with laughs. Despite the levity of some of the situations in which our hero finds himself, the obsessions and patterns to which Christopher is bound reflect genuine autistic traits. Though Christopher processes emotion differently from most people, the novel is also full of heart and heartbreaking moments. Most of the emotional gravitas is provided by the supporting cast as their personal struggles are brought to the forefront via the narrator's matter-of-fact writing. Indeed, while Christopher's narration provides heartfelt insight into the mind of an autistic teenager, the stories of his parents tell of the difficulties of raising an autistic child. This book also reads like a thriller: it is short, compelling, mysterious, and the pages flew by once I got a hang of the unique style. This novel is highly entertaining, refreshing, profound, and well-researched. Mark Haddon hit a homer with this one, and I wish I had taken all the recommendations earlier. I loved it, and I think you will too!