“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”

Never judge a book by its cover. So far I have used this expression only in its metaphorical sense - do not judge people by their outward appearance. I never thought that one day I will use in its literary sense. If I had judged the book by its cover (and its title for that matter) I would never have read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and I would have missed a lot. 

The very first time I saw the front cover of this book, it was a disaster - a dog stabbed by a garden fork. It looked as if some 5 year old kid had drawn it quite unsuccessfully. Next, I looked at the title: “The Curious Incident with the Dog” What?! Wait! This is far too long to be a title. In fact it was quite long but it had no promising meaning as to the content of the book. I opened the first page. The first chapter was not chapter 1, it was chapter 2! I flipped the pages several times, thinking that the problem is me of course, but no! The first chapter was indeed chapter 2. 

The mystery is told from the perspective of a 15-year old boy named Christopher. In spite of his “disability”, he investigates the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog. It was such an interesting read with a very unique perspective. He relates well to animals in the story, but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand being touched, and he detests the color yellow. The main characters in the story are Christopher, Mr. Boone, Mrs. Alexander, Siobhan, and Mr. and Mrs. Shears.

Nothing’s so impressing in the first few chapters. But if you keep reading though, you will understand what makes this book special - the main character. Christopher is not a usual boy. He is autistic; he is great at math and physics but he doesn't know anything about the human relationships. He is afraid to be touched or to be in the same room with strangers. He hates the colors yellow and brown and loves red. He doesn't eat pieces of food that touch each other. He loves patterns, puzzles, and logic and he knows all the prime numbers up to 3,000. That is why all of the chapters have only numbers that are prime. 

So using the language of math, he makes this astute observation: “Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.” I can totally agree with that! Christopher notices details that most other people don't.

In another chapter, Christopher notes a list of some of his behavioral problems: “Saying things that other people think are rude.” People say that you always have to tell the truth. But they do not mean this because you are not allowed to tell old people that they are old and you are not allowed to tell people if they smell funny or if a grown-up has made a fart. And you are not allowed to say “I don’t like you” unless that person has been horrible to you. I find it very interesting that while he can see his own “behavioral problems,” he has reasons for each of them. It isn’t like he just does things for no reason or to cause problems, he does them because he likes things a certain way.

The book is written simply and understandably. It features a lot of drawings, maps, and lists. In fact, this unusual aspect makes its immerse effect on the reader even more powerful. Haddon shows a great understanding of the autistic mind and the way it works. Sad, funny, challenging, surprising, this novel is going to make you laugh, cry, and think seriously about the people with disabilities.