Book review - the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon

  This book is not just a suspense detective story. One night. Christopher, the narrator of the story, find the dog to be stabbed by a garden fork. We may take the case lightly but he sees it as a serious one and starts his journey as a detective to track down the murderer of the dog.

Little introduction to the character

                                                                               +++

  Christopher Boone, 15, is an autistic child. He cannot comprehend a variety of emotions and expressions and can only understand simple feelings like sad, angry and happy. Thus, the book is written in simple English. He detests to be touched so he screams and hit the person when touched. He dislikes noise. He likes things to be arranged so that he knows what will happen and does not have take risks. He determines the day to be good or bad when he sees a row of red or yellow cars He deciphers complicated life mathematically such as comparing life with prime numbers. Since he adores prime numbers, he chapters the book in prime numbers too. 

                                                                               +++ 

  

  Christopher's unique personality intrigues the readers and leads them to continue reading. But it does not allow him to think like normal people and focus on certain main points. He writes some specific but insignificant things like what he ate, what he did before going to his room. While we are reading the book, we may able to predict the murderer but Christopher is shocked at the culprit's identity.

  

  When he solves the mysterious incident, an unforeseen truth about his parents is revealed. He embarks on his journey to the outside world on his own where he had never gone before. While Christopher meets strange crowds of people unfavourably, we may laugh (although Christopher said it is not a funny book) or be perplexed by him.

  

  We may or may not like Christopher but he is definitely something we can think about - to see different perspectives of views from different people. This is a bitterly funny and remarkable book.

  At the end of the book, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time was not merely a petty case but a great case which introduced Christopher to the outside world traveling by his own where he refrained from for 15 years.

Spoiler

  The father killing the dog helped Christopher ironically

1) induce him to step into the world for the first time by himself

2)but distance Christopher from the father in relationship.