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Narrated by a fifteen-year-old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions.
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. At fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbour's dog Wellington impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.
Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer, and turns to his favourite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As Christopher tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, the narrative draws readers into the workings of Christopher's mind.
And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon's choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotions. The effect is dazzling, making for one of the freshest debut in years: a comedy, a tearjerker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. At fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbour's dog Wellington impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.
Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer, and turns to his favourite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As Christopher tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, the narrative draws readers into the workings of Christopher's mind.
And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon's choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotions. The effect is dazzling, making for one of the freshest debut in years: a comedy, a tearjerker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.
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Publisher:
New York :, Doubleday Canada
Copyright Date:
©2009
ISBN:
9780307371560
Characteristics:
1 online resource
text file,rda
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anythingfantasygoes
Aug 14, 2013
anythingfantasygoes thinks this title is suitable for 10 years and over
Quotes
Add a QuoteBut in life you have to take lots of decisions and if you don't take decisions you would never do anything because you would spend all your time choosing between things you could do. So it is good to have a reason why you hate some things and you like others.
'...But sometimes we get sad about things and we don't like to tell other people that we are sad about them. We like to keep it a secret. Or sometimes we are sad but we don't really know we are sad. So we say we aren't sad. But really we are.'
And this shows that sometimes people want to be stupid and they do not want to know the truth.
And it shows that something called Occam's razor is true. And Occam's razor is not a razor that men shave with but a Law, and it says
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praetor necessitate.
Which is Latin and it means
No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary.
And when the universe has finished exploding, all the stars will slow down, like a ball that has been thrown into the air, and they will come to a halt and they will all begin to fall toward the center of the universe again. And then there will be nothing to stop us from seeing all the stars in the world because they will all be moving toward us, gradually faster and faster, and we will know that the world is going to end soon because when we look up into the sky at night there will be no darkness, just the blazing light of billions and billions of stars, all falling.
Chapters in books are usually given the cardinal numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and so on. But I have decided to give my chapters prime numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 and so on because I like prime numbers.
Summary
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AbebechBekele
Jun 23, 2016
Christopher was the protagonist character in the story. One day he saw a neighbor dog killed with a garden fork or rank. However he was wondering who might have been killed that dog. He took a responsibility,or he became a detective. He asked several neighbors if they had seen anyone who was killing Mrs. Shears's dog. Everyone refused and they told him they didn't see anything. One day one neighbor told him about his father. Christopher also used a secret book to write what happen or he was seeing by not showing his father. However, since the father had told him his mom had died due to heart attack, Christopher assumed his mother is dead already. He thought he has no mother anymore. One day Christopher's father found out that Christopher was detecting about the dead dog. Then he command Christopher not to go any neighbors house because Christopher's father was the murderer of the dog. He warned Christopher not even to take another step. He also founds Christopher's secret book and he hide it. His mom was still alive instead she lives in a different place, London. Christopher's mother had written a letter for several times. By contrast, Mr. Shears kept hiding the letter because he told Christopher already that his mom died because she had a heart attack. All in all Christopher's father told Christopher that he killed the neighbor's dog because Mrs. Shears doesn't wanted to live with him and the purpose was to piss her off. And he forgive Christopher for his brainwashing thoughts. Moreover, Christopher decided not to live with his father because he thought his father might kill him as well just like the dog. So Christopher move to London to find his mother and he brings her back to his father's house.
blue_butterfly_2610
Aug 31, 2013
Christopher John Francis Boone is a strange boy. One who does not like being yelled at or even touch. He knows all the countries in the world and every prime number up to 7,057. He detests the color yellow and brown. In this book Christopher not only solves the mystery of the killing of Wellington he writes a book about it. At the end he finds himself finding his so called dead mother.
SaanichLori
Apr 26, 2011
A 15 year old autistic boy finds his neighbour's poodle dead with a garden fork through its body. At first he is accused of the murder, but after he is cleared, he decides to find out who the killer is.
Interesting note: the chapters are not sequential number, but rather prime numbers.
Notices
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anythingfantasygoes
Aug 14, 2013
Coarse Language: This book has quite an amount of curse words in it, which is to be expected, sine it is in the young adult section.
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Fantasylover97
Aug 08, 2011
Coarse Language: this book has some coarse languages throughout the story
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Add a CommentThe curious incident of the dog in the nighttime’ is a very addictive book. The book features a character called Christopher, and Christopher suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a type of autism. Because Christopher has this condition, the book stands out differently than other ordinary books by, writing what he doesn’t understand about ‘normal/ordinary’ people.
Christopher finds a dog murdered by a garden fork and he decides to find the murderer and write a murder mystery book. While trying to find the murderer, he also finds the truth behind his parents. The book offers a great amount of sadness and a huge twist in the story that is not expected. These events all lead up to a adventurous train ride to London.
Overall, i would give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars. I would also recommend this book to people 13 and over because the book includes a lot of swearing in some parts of the story. The vocabulary used in this book is very easy to understand. It was very fun to read.
Highly recommended.
Quite a bit of language. Two people living together who are married to other people. (possibly divorced, but it's not made clear.)
I LOVE CHRISTOPHER!! Super unique character voice. Loved it.
This was the first book from my library's general fiction collection that I was able to finish, and it's an accomplishment I held dear 5-6 years ago.
And I think it was a fine read? I'll need to re-read it again to refresh my memory.
Frankly, I thought it well written, but not with any simple humour - and cannot agree with the comments on the book jacket, that "it is funny". Also wonder how many 13 year olds would really enjoy it, but perhaps I'm too old to appreciate it (and I do have 2 wonderful autistic children in my extended family).
An outstanding read all around. Written from an interesting perspective, even the little touches like the style of chapter numbering add to the overall experience.
A very captivating and intense, but at the same time, a light hearted and sweet story. This is the story of a young boy with a photographic memory, a boy who is very clever and witty, who sees the world in a different but beautiful and unique way. This book was not what I was expecting at all. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect as I made the decision to read this book. However, what I do know is that this book exceeded all my expectations and was a fantastic book, written beautifully and with so much passion. I was captivated and found I could not put this book down until I had read it completely. It had the right amount of humour, sadness and even a twist which you don't see coming.
Christopher, the main character in this book, faces tough situations that are sometimes even painful to read about. But you will be rooting for him all the way. He has an interesting worldview, and he demonstrates strength in the face of adversity.
One odd thing about this book: the author and all the characters are British, and the vocabulary is British ("tea" as a meal, "dungarees" instead of "overalls," etc.)...yet the spelling is American. Why would an editor make the decision to change "metres" to "meters," "pyjamas" to "pajamas," etc.? It makes the text seem inauthentic and dumbed-down. I noticed the same thing in the book Code Name Verity. If this is a new trend in publishing, I don't like it.
A book about a protagonist with autism that never mentions autism, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is well written, somewhat sad and very much worth reading.
Main character Christopher finds a dog murdered by a gardening fork. He embarks on a quest to solve the murder that culminates in a harrowing train ride to London that is a somehow more satisfying than the novel's conclusion.
A delightful, easy-to-read book about an autistic boy experiencing life from his perspective. An eye-opener for someone like myself who does not have anyone close to me who is autistic. I loved the simple humour and the sweet ending. Highly recommended!
I enjoyed this book when I read it several years ago. I saw the play over the weekend. I enjoyed the play and so did my husband who hasn't read the book.