The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time : Mark Haddon

Image Credit : Adam's Bibliomania

Never judge a book by its cover or so they say. Never judge a book by what's written on the jacket, or so I say. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon was gifted to me by Bibliojunkie last year. For some reason I cannot fathom I didn't read it till now. Or rather, I thought it was a 'mystery novel'. I can't be blamed when the blurb made me think that this is all about Christopher trying to find out who murdered the neighbor's dog, Wellington, and the terrifying consequences it leads him to. Right, I thought.

But I am in the middle of reading Ken Follett's massive Winter of the World, and since that might take the rest of the year to finish, I like taking a break from it every now and then to pick up other books. I picked this one up, and I was hooked. It wasn't a murder mystery. In fact, I don't even know how it can be called a mystery. Instead, it was one of the most captivating and creative novels I have read in years. It had me immersed, it had me smiling and it made me go 'awwww' more than once.

Christopher Boone is 15. He knows "all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,507". He has Asperger's syndrome, lives with his father and Toby, his pet rat in Swindon, his mother is dead, and his teacher Siobhan tells him to write a book. Enter what I think is one of the most original literary voices. Christopher's writing is laced with ironic humor even though he insists he doesn't understand a joke. He hates being touched, a Good Day for him is seeing 4 red cars in a row, and a Bad Day is seeing 4 yellow cars in a row. You might think that he is indifferent, or unemotional - but no. There is a lot inside Christopher's head that speaks movingly.The story opens with Christopher finding the neighbor's dog dead on the lawn, with a pitchfork in its stomach. It's a gruesome beginning. And Christopher is determined to turn detective and find out who-did-it. But that's not what the reader will care about. Through that, you discover a mess of family relations - about adults like Christopher's parents who seem to excel in completely messing up their lives. The true estrangement between his parents is what forms the crux of the book. Christopher may have 'strange' reactions to events - he hates crowded places, but I could only think that he had far more emotional sense than the others so-called adults in the book.


One of my favorite quotes: (indeed the book's chapters are all numbered prime number wise)

"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."

Verdict : There is nothing I can add to this book that hasn't been said already. A classic.

Rating : 5/5