Wednesday 31 August 2011

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time



It turns out I'm a very bad blogger. One book I struggle to get into and I give up. Not this one, I hasten to add - I loved this one! It's the next one in the chain that I'm struggling with - but that's no excuse for not telling you about this wonderful novel.

I chose The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time because the title is a direct quote from Sherlock Holmes in the first story of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. The "curious incident" in this case is witnessed by fifteen-year-old Christopher, who finds his neighbour's dog murdered one night. This is the most unusual murder mystery I have ever read, as not only is the murder victim a dog, but the detective is a boy who appears to have Asperger's syndrome (although this is never explicitly stated).

Christopher loves routines, maths and lists. He takes everything at face value and doesn't really understand the concept of joking, sarcasm or lying. He also struggles to understand the complexity of other people's emotions - to him things are good (prime numbers, programmes about space and Sherlock Holmes mysteries) or bad (yellow or brown things and being touched). In essence, the book is less a detective story than a character study of a complex boy who sees the world very differently from his readers.

The real genius of this book is that it is written from the perspective of a child on the autistic spectrum. As far as I know, this has never been done before, but Mark Haddon manages to draw an incredibly plausible picture of what goes on in Christopher's mind. According to several interviews with him he has never worked with autistic children, and in fact did not particularly intend the label of Asperger's to be attached to Christopher. Speaking as someone who has worked with many children with similar conditions I find this extraordinary. Christopher's behaviours ring absolutely true to me. His descriptions of how he feels when his routines are broken, when someone gets too close to him or when he doesn't understand the world around him are incredibly intense and make me feel I understand these children far more than I did before I read the book.

There have been plenty of novels written about children with autistic spectrum disorders, usually from the perspective of the parents or of an impartial narrator. Had this book been written from one of these perspectives I feel it would have lost a huge part of what makes it so special. I felt almost privileged to be allowed to inhabit Christopher's mind for a little while. He reminded me how important it is to be able to take pleasure in the simple things in life. He likes the quiet. He loves things that form a pattern and make sense. He likes to lie on his back on the grass, look up at the stars, and pretend that he is the only person in the world.

In many ways Curious is an uplifting and beautiful book. It's also so, so sad. Christopher is looked after by his father, and through Christopher's words it becomes obvious that, although he loves him and is fiercely protective of him, his father is also intensely frustrated by his son. For me the saddest part of the book is when Christopher becomes terrified that his Dad is going to hurt him. He can't understand the concept of love, and so he doesn't understand how much his Dad loves him.

I really, really can't begin to describe how wonderful this book is. I love all the tiny details that add to its richness (Christopher names all his chapters after prime numbers and adds an appendix which shows his working of a complicated maths problem - just because). But mostly I love the way Haddon was able to help me inhabit the mind of such a fascinating and complex character. This book is an incredible achievement. Please read it.