Mark Haddon, the well known British author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is today 46 year old. He lives in Oxford with his wife and his two children. He has written many novels, most of these for youth. Random titles are A Spot of Bother, The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea and the books about Agent Z. He had meant the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time to be a novel for an adult audience, and became very surprised when the publisher suggested putting it for sale for youths as well.
The year is something around 2000, because there are letters in the book dating back to 1997, and the majority of the story takes place in Swindon, England. Here lives Christopher Boone, a 15 year old boy with the ailment called Asperger’s syndrome. This syndrome gives him autistic features and a totally different view than others of the world he lives in.
Christopher’s mother, Judy, is short-tempered and impatient. Although she loves her son we can often read about how Christopher’s ailment gets on her nerves. This is one of the main reasons of why she left. The father, on the other hand, is a lot calmer and patient. His name is Edward, and he is the one who takes care of Christopher most of the time.
We can also read about Mrs Alexander, an old lady living in the neighbourhood, who tries to make friends with Christopher in her surely lonely existence. But she seems to believe too much of the gossip going around in the neighbourhood…
When Christopher finds Mrs Shear’s dog murdered, he starts to investigate. During his search he finds more and more information, but this information is about him and not the dog. He gets closer and closer to the truth about his mother, who does not seem to be dead after all, and when he discovers that his father has lied to him about his mother, that she is still alive and lives in London with Mr Shears and that his father killed Wellington, he leaves the house in fear in search for a way to get to London, to his mother.
The story is written in a dramatic and comic manner, so I guess you can say that the genre is dramatic comedy. To find one main theme is a bit difficult, but since the book was written for an adult audience, I guess that the author wanted to write about parents’ self-sacrifice for their children, no matter what. He wanted to write about parents’ difficulties with having children with ailments like Asperger’s syndrome. Mark Haddon himself has worked with children with different ailments, and he therefore knows a lot about Asperger’s syndrome.
The pictorial elements used in the book gives us a little more insight in how detailed and vigilant a person with Asperger’s syndrome is. He can describe and draw a pattern he has seen days before, and he can write a detailed map. They also help the readers to understand what happens during the story.
Although the plot dragged on in some moments, the plot ran smoothly through the actions and made the book easy to enjoy. I can easily – and warmly will – recommend this book to others.
Sources
(Outside of word count)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon ©2003 (Vintage 2004)
