Book Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Author: Mark Haddon

Publisher: Doubleday

Date: 2005W

ISBN: 0-585-51210-4

Length: 226 pages

Quote: “My name is Christopher John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057.”

But of course, being fifteen, Christopher J.F. Boone doesn’t know a lot of other things. Being autistic, he’s reached an age where his own parents are somewhat afraid of him, and the stress that living with him has put on their marriage is one thing Christopher learns more about in the course of this novel. (Christopher has an academic understanding that people “do sex” but he’s not yet reached a level of hormone activity at which he can understand why.)

The dog belonged to one of his neighbors. Christopher had often petted it before but this time he realized it was dead. He was holding the dog when its owner accused Christopher of killing the dog and called the police. Christopher hit the officer who tried to hasten him, but he’s not usually violent; he just doesn’t like being touched.

Then, for a school writing assignment, he decides to write a mystery novel about how he played detective and found out who did kill the dog. What he learns blows his mind and impels him to do the bravest thing he’s ever done—braver than insisting on being allowed to take the “A level in mathematics” test, although it becomes obvious that most of the children in his “special” school aren’t even going to pass the O levels.

In the British system, students and their teachers get a choice about how many of which of these exams teenagers take; which tests, in what subject, and how they score on each test, determines which university and trade school courses they’ll be allowed to take. “Ordinary levels” are good enough for some things but a student who wants to be an astronaut (or an astrophysicist), as Christopher does, needs “Advanced levels” in math and science. Christopher’s teachers warn him that they’ve not prepared him for A levels and nobody from his school has ever passed these tests before. Christopher convinces them that he’ll pass the exam, easily.

On the other hand, a simple commuter train ride is a real challenge for Christopher, and with a little extra time for covering his ears and groaning he convinces himself that he can do that, too.

Many readers who were in school after 2005 have already read this book; it nudged titles like The Red Badge of Courage off many school reading lists. Several adults bought it in 2005 because it was a bestseller. If you’ve refused to spend your money on a bestseller, and held out for a secondhand copy, well I have one. It’s worth having waited for. Haddon’s ability to sustain a fictive voice, writing the way some "high-functioning autistic" people talk, is what everyone admires; the precision with which he brings scenes and characters to life is delicious, too.