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A review by thaurisil
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
2.0
Christopher Boone, a fifteen-year-old with Asperger's Syndrome (or so it appears, but this is never stated clearly), is writing a book, the book we're reading. He intends for it to be a murder mystery novel, to find out who killed his neighbour Mrs Shears' dog Wellington, but he soon discovers that the murderer was his father, and that his father has been lying to him all this time and that his mother is not dead but was having an affair with Mr Shears and gone to London with him, and has been writing weekly letters to Christopher that were hidden by his father. Now scared of his father whom he deems a murder, Christopher runs away to London, a long and difficult process as he does not know how to and is frightened of strangers and unfamiliar places. He finds his mother, who eventually brings him back to Swindon to begin a slow process of reconciliation with his father.
I recall that when I first read this ten years ago, in 2009, I liked the book very much. Ten years later, it was only with persistence that I did not abandon this book. The problem is Christopher. It is not the perspective that I disliked. His perspective from the autistic spectrum was interesting, and I enjoyed reading about how he cannot understand other people's emotions and body language, how he makes decisions based solely on logic, and how he is afraid of human contact and loud noises, and hence screams when people touch him and groans to cover up loud noises.
The problem is that Christopher is horribly selfish. He doesn't care for any of the people around him. He has no love for either of his parents, and only likes the security that they give him. After all his father does to take care of him and protect him from harm, he decides that his father is evil for killing a dog and refuses to stay with him or talk to him. It's hypocritical that he expect his father to care for a dog, and yet he displays an absolute lack of love or gratitude to his father. He gets angry at his father for lying to him about his mother's whereabouts, because he cannot trusts someone who doesn't tell the truth, and yet he himself easily tells "white lies". And when he finally ends up in London with his mother, he demands that his mother bring him back to Swindon to take his A level math exam. He literally screams until he gets his way. His mother bends over backwards for him, leaving her lover and driving Christopher back to Swindon and arranging for him to take his exam, and all Christopher does is say that he is tired but he wants to take his exam. He's a spoilt kid, and his disability does not excuse his self-centredness.
Christopher's voice is initially offbeat and unique, but it becomes tiringly repetitive. He uses far too many "and"s. Many of his sentences are just multiple clauses joined together with "and"s, and many of his paragraphs and sentences begin with "And". He feels frightened too often and does far too much groaning (he never groans, he always "does groaning"), and it came to a point where every instance of him getting frightened or doing groaning was annoying.
Ironically, although I could not sympathise with Christopher despite all his attempts at self-pity, I have deep sympathy for his parents, who just want the best for Christopher. His father is incredibly patient. He loves and protects Christopher, gives in to his whims, and genuinely does all he can to make Christopher happy. After losing Christopher's trust, his heartfelt and unsuccessful attempts to gain Christopher's forgiveness and trust are heartbreaking. Christopher's mother doesn't hold it together as well as his father. She gets frustrated more easily, blames herself when things go wrong, and does not know how best to parent Christopher. But she does her best and deeply loves Christopher. They are a real representation of parents of autistic children, of these real-life heroes who work tireless and love unconditionally.
Haddon apparently did not know much about autistic people, did not read up about autism, and said that the book is not about any specific disorder. His lack of research probably resulted in him depicting autism in an inaccurate and frankly disparaging manner. I'm giving this two stars – the extra star is for his effort in writing in an unconventional voice.
I recall that when I first read this ten years ago, in 2009, I liked the book very much. Ten years later, it was only with persistence that I did not abandon this book. The problem is Christopher. It is not the perspective that I disliked. His perspective from the autistic spectrum was interesting, and I enjoyed reading about how he cannot understand other people's emotions and body language, how he makes decisions based solely on logic, and how he is afraid of human contact and loud noises, and hence screams when people touch him and groans to cover up loud noises.
The problem is that Christopher is horribly selfish. He doesn't care for any of the people around him. He has no love for either of his parents, and only likes the security that they give him. After all his father does to take care of him and protect him from harm, he decides that his father is evil for killing a dog and refuses to stay with him or talk to him. It's hypocritical that he expect his father to care for a dog, and yet he displays an absolute lack of love or gratitude to his father. He gets angry at his father for lying to him about his mother's whereabouts, because he cannot trusts someone who doesn't tell the truth, and yet he himself easily tells "white lies". And when he finally ends up in London with his mother, he demands that his mother bring him back to Swindon to take his A level math exam. He literally screams until he gets his way. His mother bends over backwards for him, leaving her lover and driving Christopher back to Swindon and arranging for him to take his exam, and all Christopher does is say that he is tired but he wants to take his exam. He's a spoilt kid, and his disability does not excuse his self-centredness.
Christopher's voice is initially offbeat and unique, but it becomes tiringly repetitive. He uses far too many "and"s. Many of his sentences are just multiple clauses joined together with "and"s, and many of his paragraphs and sentences begin with "And". He feels frightened too often and does far too much groaning (he never groans, he always "does groaning"), and it came to a point where every instance of him getting frightened or doing groaning was annoying.
Ironically, although I could not sympathise with Christopher despite all his attempts at self-pity, I have deep sympathy for his parents, who just want the best for Christopher. His father is incredibly patient. He loves and protects Christopher, gives in to his whims, and genuinely does all he can to make Christopher happy. After losing Christopher's trust, his heartfelt and unsuccessful attempts to gain Christopher's forgiveness and trust are heartbreaking. Christopher's mother doesn't hold it together as well as his father. She gets frustrated more easily, blames herself when things go wrong, and does not know how best to parent Christopher. But she does her best and deeply loves Christopher. They are a real representation of parents of autistic children, of these real-life heroes who work tireless and love unconditionally.
Haddon apparently did not know much about autistic people, did not read up about autism, and said that the book is not about any specific disorder. His lack of research probably resulted in him depicting autism in an inaccurate and frankly disparaging manner. I'm giving this two stars – the extra star is for his effort in writing in an unconventional voice.