The February selection for the “Reading with Jacqs” project was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The book is basically a mystery narrated by a young English boy, Christopher, who is a highly functioning autistic. The mystery begins with the death of a dog, Wellington, that our narrator finds with a lawn fork stuck in him. His search for the cause of the dog’s death leads to the instruction by his aggressive father to “stop sticking your nose in other people’s business.” Christopher decides to write a book detailing his search for answers. When his father trashes the manuscript as a punishment for Christopher’s persistent search for the dog’s murderer, the search for his prized notebook leads to an unexpected discovery that shapes the course of the rest of Christopher’s adventures.
Mark Haddon eloquently expresses the quirkiness of an autistic boy and takes the reader deep into the inner-workings of the mind. Every detail of the book — including the numbering system used for the book’s chapters — are designed to paint a clearer portrait of our main character. At times difficult to process because of the tangents Haddon’s writing includes, it quickly becomes clear that we are seeing the world through the eyes of the disorder. What I found most intriguing is that the novel is not about the disorder; autism is simply a fact of Christopher’s life that partially defines him. Although I don’t normally read mysteries, I found myself immersed in the tale of Christopher, his family relationships, and the curious incident that links them all together.
What’s next on my reading list? I’ve just begun Trevanian’s The Crazyladies of Pearl Street. I’m hoping to make a nice dent in it during tomorrow’s snow day from school.
