Breeann MacGillivray - Book Review

Michael Link EDUC-2530-005

Book Review Assignment

Book: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon

Breeann MacGillivray (3047165)

March 13th, 2014

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is a fictional autobiography written by british novelist Mark Haddon. Mark Haddon narrates from the point of view of a 15 year old autistic boy that you are guaranteed to fall in love with. Christopher, the narrator, is a genius yet he is unable to comprehend anything that is abstract or not straight forward. For instance, he does not understand when someone is using a figure of speech or when someone is making a joke.  Furthermore, Christopher does not feel emotions like the average person, so he is unable to recognize any human emotions which often gets him into serious trouble. Mark Haddon does a wonderful job at portraying the hardships that an autistic teenager and their family struggle with each day, and hearing about these struggles from Christopher's point of view is what makes the story so touching.

The novel is written in first person as if Christopher is keeping a journal. Christopher states in his journal that he is writing about his experience as a detective: he is investigating to find out who killed his neighbor's dog.  Although what makes this autobiography so interesting and unique is that as Christopher investigates the dog case, the reader starts to uncover the mysteries of his family life. As we read between the lines of the story, the readers are uncovering an entirely different story that has very little to do with the dog at all. Since Christopher is unable to read people's emotions or understand anything beyond what is directly said, he is oblivious to the fact that there is something fishy about his mother's death. The readers, on the other hand, start to become suspicious even though it never concerns Christopher.

Christopher's story starts off with him the wrong place at the wrong time as he happens to be the first person to notice the lifeless dog in his neighbor's front yard. Christopher decides to pick the dog up just in time for the neighbor, Mrs. Shear, to come outside and see the disturbing scene. Needless to say, he is off to a rough start. Unfortunately, Mrs. Shear calls the police and, in short, Christopher ends up assaulting the officer. Luckily, Christopher was soon released from jail but he is still determined to investigate the dog's death further.

Christopher starts his investigation by interviewing each of his neighbors. As the reader sees the conversations between Christopher and his neighbors, it starts to become more apparent that there is many things going on in Christopher's family that he does not know about. For instance, when Christopher tells one of his neighbors that his mother passed away last year she is confused and shocked. Although, Christopher does not understand her emotions so he is not phased by her abnormal reaction, and he continues with his investigation.

Eventually, the reader finds out through Christopher's "interviews" that his mother had an affair with one of the neighbors. Christopher mentions that this particular neighbor just happened to move away during the same week that his mother died. None of this is of any interest to Christopher, but the reader is able to put the pieces together and brace themselves for the devastating moment in which Christopher finds out his father has been lying about his mother's death.

Personally, I was touched by Christopher's story. The novel was able to convey the struggles of autism and included the struggles the entire family is faced with on a daily basis.  While reading the novel I was sympathizing with Christopher's parents, even after finding out about some of their faults. Haddon did a wonderful job at describing what the parents of a child with a disability have to go through, and through this story he makes us realize that we must never be judgmental of families struggling with a disability.

The novel reminded me that parents are not experts or professionals that know exactly how to deal with their child's disabilities. Additionally, parents may not be mentally equipped to work through the issues that go along with a disability. For instance, Christopher's mother can be impatient at times. Impatience is a common fault many of us have, yet this small fault ends up ruining her and Christopher's relationship.  Her personality made it very difficult for to live with Christopher and soon she felt that she needed to leave their home. It might be easy to judge Christopher's mother for being so impatient and leaving the family, but the novel reminded me how difficult parenting an autistic child is.

On the other hand, Christopher's father is much more patient but his fault is his lack of communication skills. For instance, he struggles when it comes to talking about difficult or uncomfortable topics and he was often at a loss of words when trying to explain abstract concepts to his son. This common fault resulted in him lying to Christopher, and almost ruined their relationship as well. Again, one might jump to conclusions and judge the father for lying to Christopher, but after reading the whole story I was much more open minded, and sympathized with the difficult scenario he was presented with.

Not only is this book extremely entertaining and interesting to read, but it also teaches a valuable lesson to the readers. As readers, we learn how difficult life with a disability is and we also learn to appreciate the struggles that parents go through. Most of us know already know that we must not make judgments against those with disabilities, but Mark Haddon goes one step further. The story he writes teaches us that we must not make any judgements against the entire family; he educates us about how hard it is to live with someone who is struggling with autism.  Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone, as it is extremely enjoyable and is guaranteed to give you a better understanding of what life with autism is like.