The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark HaddonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow. This book is an incredible mixture of both heartbreaking and heartwarming. I'm blown away by how much this story has moved me. I am in awe of the difficulty, the pain, the struggle, and the paralyzing fear that Christopher went through in order to solve not only the mystery of "Who Killed Wellington?," the neighbour's dog, but also that of his recently deceased mother.
Mark Haddon has seized my brain and shaken it all up, leaving me feeling grateful for the normal life that I lead and yet also terrible for not having realized, to this detailed extent, the difficulty in living life with Asperger's. I've never met anyone with Asperger's, although my grandmother, being a High school art teacher, has had many kids with special needs over the years, so I could at least recognize some of Christopher's unique traits. But honestly, none of that prepared me to feel as emotionally attached as I did with his journey, to the point where I found myself anxiously turning page after page in order to find out as fast as I could whether he finally made it out of his incredible adventure safely!
I will say that I wasn't completely sold on the book when I first began reading it. I found the narrative style a bit hard to get into as it's told completely in Christopher's POV, which is unique in that he speaks either in very short, curt sentences or in long winded paragraphs, both highly logical and 'matter-of-fact' and at times almost robot-like, often repeating himself. Obviously this is on purpose and it lends a believable voice to how a person with Asperger's actually speaks, thinks and rationalizes. After I got used to his way of thinking I found the story to hum along quite easily and smoothly. He is incredibly intelligent and treats us to many mathematical and scientific facts throughout that sure interested me! His view of the world, including life and death, the human brain, the universe and the eventual extinction of humankind was eerie and yet so true and practical that I was fascinated right through to the end with his examples and unique perspective.
Christopher's relationship with his parents broke my heart and yet this aspect is what really drove the whole story home for me. I love that even though we are seeing his parent's through his eyes, we as the audience are able to discern through what they say to him and their gestures that he observes that they truly love him and care so deeply for his safety and his well-being. The subtext of what they say or do may usually be lost on Christopher but it is certainly not lost on us. I cannot even imagine the true struggle and frustration that his parents, or any parents of a child with special needs, have to go through. Of course as a reader we may not agree with everything that his parents do - both his father and mother lose it a bit and make some rash, irreversible decisions that have quite damaging consequences - but having never been in their situation I can't say that I would be any better at coping. This story and these characters will stay with me for quite some time.
If you at all enjoy mystery, humour, true-to-life struggles and a realistic look into the lives of those living with or caring for someone with unique abilities, then this will likely do the trick.
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