“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” – Review

Novel Review – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time Christopher Boone is different from normal kids his age. Rather, he is special. He has what the modern findings call the Asperger’s Syndrome. He has very strong likes and dislikes, such as loathing the color brown and yellow, while loving the color red. He is also gifted with dominant talent in logical thinking and remembering ability which are revealed in his most confident subjects: mathematics and science. As the book opens up, he says “I know all of the countries of the world and their capital cities, and every prime number up to 7,057. His favorite hobby is being a detective, and he believes that he will make a good astronaut when he grows up. However, Christopher’s major downside among his many capacities is the significant difficulty in interacting with others, which consists of comprehending and understanding people’s emotions. His restricted ability to recognize and grasp human expressions leads to frequent confusions and misunderstandings throughout the story. Although the condition of Christopher was never specified in the novel, the readers can quickly realize it, and are able to experience the creative and unique subject of an autistic teenager being the narrator.
Not many people would have imagined an autistic child whose fantasy is to wake up one day and find that he’s the only living person left on the earth to be the narrator of the book. This unique setting by Mark Haddon comes as the different medium of seeing the world, which is very simplistic and logical in a way that makes ‘perfect sense’. Christopher’s carefully ordered world must be maintained, but when the emotions, lies, and intrigue of the adult world disrupt the ‘truth’ he believed in, it greatly confuses, angers, and frustrates him.
No matter the saying of ‘constellation Orion’ being the image of a hunter with a club, he insists on distinguishing with the real ‘truth’ which is the scientific facts of the stars. Like so, when Christopher realizes that his family ‘truth’ which he thought was always right for a long time was in fact a lie, he suffers greatly from the confusion and shock. In Christopher’s view, the flaws of the adults around him are shocking and unmoral, but we readers can see that there is more to it than simple honesty in life. Christopher writes this book originally in the purpose of finding who murdered the neighbor’s dog, Wellington.

With the help of his teacher, Siobhan, he turns himself into an amateur detective and attempts to solve the mystery. Unfortunately along the way, his searching extends to finding the information which ultimately reveals all the lies in the family. It was very impressive to see the process of Christopher overcoming the chaos and hatred from the lies. His striving for the things which he thinks are right, for example returning to his mother, and accomplishing them was truly an inspiration. The thought of autism may be an extreme, but Christopher’s struggles living the modern world are something we can all relate to.