Jenna Hymes

I had heard a buzz about the book, but was slightly suspicious of its bestseller status and the fact that the back of the book proclaims it “A Today Show Book Club Selection.” I did not think there could be anything for me in the bestseller book I found discarded by its previous reader. But this is the joy of the “Under the Stair Store” and of the unexpectedly enjoyable, entertaining and enriching tale that Haddon weaves in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

The Curious Incident is narrated by Christopher Boone, an autistic teen who lives with his father in England. His mother is dead and besides his father, the most important people in his life are his teacher, Siobhan and his rat, Toby. When Christopher finds his neighbor’s dog dead, with a large garden fork sticking out of its side, he deems it murder and makes it his mission to solve the mystery of the dog’s death. This begins Christopher’s adventures, which we follow throughout the novel. The reader must rely upon Christopher’s narration, and so often has their own mysteries to solve, beside the mystery of who killed the neighbor’s dog; what is truly happening to and around Christopher that he does not understand, but we do?

While at times this device can seem heavy handed, it can also be quite effective and poignant. For example, Christopher does not like to be touched, so instead of hugging:

“[Father] held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan. I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs touch each other. We do this because sometimes Father wants to give me a hug, but I do not like hugging people so we do this instead and it means that he loves me.”

We see Christopher “hugging” his father like this throughout the novel, but it is when we imagine the feelings of his father, something which Christopher cannot do, that the reader begins to understand the struggles of Christopher, his family, and families in the real world dealing with autism.

Another device in the novel is that the book itself is meant to be written by Christopher, as an assignment for school. One way in which this manifests itself is the fact that the chapters are numbered beginning with 2 and continue on only with prime numbers. This is one of the times the device can be a little cloying; in some ways more cutesy than an insight into the mind of an autistic boy.

However, the fact that the novel is supposed to be a book that Christopher is writing with his teacher Siobahn, makes the novel itself a reflection on the creative process. We see Christopher attempting to craft a compelling book:

“Siobhan said that when you are writing a book you have to include some descriptions of things. I said that I could take photographs and put them in the book. But she said the idea of a book was to describe things using words so that people could read them and make a picture in their own head.”

This, of course is the frustration of all writers, but one that must somehow be overcome through language. Haddon manages to paint a vivid picture of his characters and the events in the novel. However, he also includes drawings scattered throughout the novel to illustrate various things that Christopher sees or thinks about. Not only does he include drawings, but we also see examples of peoples’ handwriting, written out in script, rather than the novel’s usual typeface. This device is a little too cutesy, reminding me of young adult novels that I used to read that would show a letter or a diary entry written out in perfect cursive. Haddon manages to fulfill his own goal of allowing people to “read [his words] and make a picture in their own head” and so the drawings and handwriting samples in the novel are not truly necessary.

One great accomplishment of this novel is that way it allows the reader to understand the autistic brain. Christopher says:

“My memory is like a film… And when people ask me to remember something, I can simply press Rewind and Fast Forward and Pause like on a video recorder, but more like a DVD player because I don’t have to Rewind through everything in between to get to a memory of something a long time ago. And there are no buttons, either, because it’s happening in my head.”

Haddon takes us beyond the stereotypes we may know of autistic people and attempts to create a character that allows the reader to go inside the mind of an autistic person. His writing is crisp and funny, and he so clearly creates a voice for Christopher, that we are taken in and begin to be able to see how his mind operates.

This insight into the autistic mind can be interesting, but also can be disturbing and sad. One particularly haunting example of this is when Christopher tells of a dream he frequently has and loves, “And in the dream nearly everyone on the earth is dead, because they have caught a virus. … People catch [the virus] because of the meaning of something an infected person says and the meaning of what they do with their faces when they say it.” Christopher cannot understand people’s subtle facial expressions. “And eventually there is no one left in the world except people who don’t look at other people’s faces and who don’t know what these pictures mean.”

As the reader gets to know Christopher throughout the novel, we sympathize with him and learn what it’s like to think from an autistic person’s point of view. At the same time, as non-autistic people, we are separate from Christopher. This moment where he imagines the rest of the world, the people who look at other people’s faces, which is us, the reader, as being dead and this being a fantasy, is a moment of pause for the reader. It throws a spotlight on the feelings of fear and lack of understanding surrounding people with autism. We want desperately for them to somehow be able to function as we do, but it is not often that we think that they would want us to go away and let them function as they do now. And while Haddon’s novel is an entertaining read, this is probably the most impressive accomplishment; he allows us to understand a mindset that is almost impossible for us to comprehend. The novel may take place in modern day England, but it takes us into another world all together.