David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "mark-haddon"
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME is not, repeat not, a mystery. The protagonist is a fifteen-year-old autistic boy who discovers his next-door neighbor's poodle, stabbed to death with a garden fork. He then sets out to discover who did it and write about it as a project for school.
Christopher John Francis Boone is the narrator and he loves to "do the maths", can't stand to be touched, and hates the colors yellow and brown. He sprinkles red food coloring on his food because he loves the color red. The next-door-neighbor blames Christopher for the death of her poodle and calls the police. When the policeman touches him, Christopher hits him and is carted off to jail. They let him out when his father explains about his "no touching" policy. His father makes him promise to give up his search for the murderer of the poodle, but Christopher can't help himself. Complications ensue.
What's amazing about this book is how much we identify with Christopher, even though he occasionally wets himself and threatens people with a knife. When he sets off to find his mother, who he thought was dead, we are just as scared as he is. He tries to figure things out logically and is good at it, but then his nerves get to him and he shuts down totally, doing "the maths" in his head.
Mark Haddon worked with autistic children as a young man, so if one of his goals was to instill a greater understanding for "special needs" children, he succeeds wonderfully.
Christopher John Francis Boone is the narrator and he loves to "do the maths", can't stand to be touched, and hates the colors yellow and brown. He sprinkles red food coloring on his food because he loves the color red. The next-door-neighbor blames Christopher for the death of her poodle and calls the police. When the policeman touches him, Christopher hits him and is carted off to jail. They let him out when his father explains about his "no touching" policy. His father makes him promise to give up his search for the murderer of the poodle, but Christopher can't help himself. Complications ensue.
What's amazing about this book is how much we identify with Christopher, even though he occasionally wets himself and threatens people with a knife. When he sets off to find his mother, who he thought was dead, we are just as scared as he is. He tries to figure things out logically and is good at it, but then his nerves get to him and he shuts down totally, doing "the maths" in his head.
Mark Haddon worked with autistic children as a young man, so if one of his goals was to instill a greater understanding for "special needs" children, he succeeds wonderfully.
