The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: A Novel
“Curious” is an apt word choice for the book title, referencing the Sherlock Holmes short story “The Adventure of Silver Blaze”. Though if you’re expecting a mystery novel, you’ll probably end up pleasantly surprised—despite being hardly a mystery, the book is about so much more than just a dog.
Entirely narrated in the first person, the protagonist features a bright autistic boy who struggles to understand the world around him. For the average reader (I included), our closest encounters with autistic individuals may be pondering whether Dr Shaun Murphy’s smarting comment was an attempt at dry humour or if Dr Temperance Brennan is really as tough as she seems.
“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.”
The book retains a delightfully whimsical touch throughout, as evidenced by the chapter numbering in prime numbers (most feel completely baffled upon opening the book, wondering what happened to chapter 1). Witty and never dull, it offers a glimpse into the stark black-and-white that many autistic individuals, especially adolescents, may face. It’s the deceptive simplicity of taking things at face value, unadulterated thoughts and a lot of honesty (whether the other person likes it or not) when the rest of the public lives in a nuanced world of grey areas.
Note that readers with experience in autism have criticised Haddon for making a poor effort to research and understand the language tendencies of those affected by it, disputing that he has contributed to the stereotypes surrounding them (ouch).
Yet while the average reader may not have much in common with the protagonist, clearly, we can afford a little more kindness and empathy in the face of these differences. After all, pure honesty is a form of innocence we have all been through and wish we could go back to living in.
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