The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: Summary and book reviews of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, plus links to an excerpt from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and a biography of Mark Haddon.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
Hardcover: Jun 2003,
240 pages.
Paperback: May 2004,
240 pages.
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order and predictability shelter him from the messy, wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.
Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher's mind.
And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon's choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotion. The effect is dazzling, making for a novel that is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing is a mind that perceives the world literally.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of the freshest debuts in years: a comedy, a heartbreaker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.
BOOK REVIEWS
Media Reviews
Publishers Weekly
... an eye-opening work in a unique and compelling literary voice.
Booklist - Kristine Huntley
Narrated by the unusual and endearing Christopher, who alternates between analyzing mathematical equations and astronomy and contemplating the deaths of Wellington and his mother, the novel is both fresh and inventive.
Library Journal - David Hellman
The novel is being marketed to a YA audience, but strong language and adult situations make this a good title for sophisticated readers of all ages. Highly recommended for all fiction collections.
Kirkus Reviews
A kind of Holden Caulfield who speaks bravely and winningly from inside the sorrows of autism wonderful, simple, easy, moving, and likely to be a smash.
The New York Times — Michiko Kakutani
In choosing to make Christopher his narrator, Mr. Haddon has deliberately created a story defined and limited by his hero's very logical, literal-minded point of view. The result is a minimalistic narrative -- not unlike a Raymond Carver story in its refusal to speculate, impute motive or perform emotional embroidery.
NY Times Sunday Book Review - Jay McInerney
Mark Haddon's stark, funny and original first novel...is presented as a detective story. But it eschews most of the furnishings of high-literary enterprise as well as the conventions of genre, disorienting and reorienting the reader to devastating effect.
Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha
I have never read anything quite like Mark Haddon's funny and agonizingly honest book, or encountered a narrator more vivid and memorable. I advise you to buy two copies; you wonðt want to lend yours out.
Myla Goldberg, author of Bee Season The Curious Incident brims with imagination, empathy, and vision -- plus it's a lot of fun to read.
Ian McEwan, author of Atonement and Amsterdam
Mark Haddon's portrayal of an emotionally dissociated mind is a superb achievement. He is a wise and bleakly funny writer with rare gifts of empathy.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Nils Franco Highly Recommended The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime teems with quirky detail and a style of writing so unique you’ll be left with an open mouth in awe of Mark Haddon’s innovative style. I encourage anyone looking for a good read to check out Haddon's... Read More
Rated of 5
by me hmm It was very interesting. I liked parts of it but sometimes it got a little slow and I wanted to throw it down. I got mad because Ii could never tell what was going to happen next like I normally can with books. But overall I liked it. Just give it... Read More
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Publishers Weekly
Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha
of 5
by Nils Franco
of 5
by me
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