The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon

This was another recommendation from the lovely Amanda for her Mental Illness Advocacy reading challenge (this is now the fourth book I have read for this challenge), but it was also a book I had heard a lot of good things about generally. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was the debut novel for British author Mark Haddon published back in 2003, and it saw great success winning the Whitbread Book of the Year. The book chronicles the life of a young man named Christopher who suffers with a mental illness, however it is never confirmed what specific mental illness it is, the copy I read described it as Aspergers Syndrome. Haddon made a statement when the question was raised to him that he is no expert himself so didn’t want to lead people to believe something he was by pinning the illness down. But is generally accepted that Christopher suffers with a form of Autism.

Christopher is fifteen years old boy who lives with just his father and pet rat Toby after the death of his mother. Christopher likes animals, maths, patterns, and the truth. Christopher doesn’t like strangers, conversation, the colours yellow and brown, and being touched. Christopher resides within a small world of school and home, the furthest he has ever travelled alone is to the shop at the end of his road. But Christopher is to be shook from his comfortable life with the finding of the body of Wellington, the next door neighbour’s pet dog, who has been murdered with a garden fork. With his love for the truth Christopher embarks on an unusual murder investigation which is to see him to talking to people he has never met, going places he has never been……places so far away. Christopher is also along the way to discover some more truths that are to change his life and thoughts forever.

My first impression of this book is just how refreshing and heart warming it was. In my last read for this challenge, The Bell Jar, I really struggled to connect with the main character; however no such problem with this book I may not of understood everything that Christopher did or thought but as a person I instantly connected with him. The whole book is in the rough format of a diary with all the action being described from Christopher’s point of view, and with his OCD need to tell the truth you do find yourself feeling that you really do know Christopher after only a few chapters. There wasn’t actually much action/adventure to the book most of it is a description of Christopher’s day-to-day life and what information he has found out. Regardless of this though I found myself utterly gripped as if I was reading the most gripping thriller which meant I finished the book in about two sittings, as I just didn’t want to put the book down!

Overall I thought this was a superb read and would highly recommend it to all of you out there looking for something just a bit different, as well as though taking part in the M.I.A Reading Challenge.