The title The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (or the curious incident of the dog in the night-time as it appears within the book) is an appropriate one for Mark Haddon's ingenious novel both because of its reference to that most obsessive and fact-obsessed of detectives, Sherlock Holmes, and because its lower-case letters indicate something important about its narrator.

Christopher is an intelligent youth who lives in the functional hinterland of autism--every day is an investigation for him because of all the aspects of human life that he does not quite get. When the dog next door is killed with a garden fork, Christopher becomes quietly persistent in his desire to find out what has happened and tugs away at the world around him until a lot of secrets unravel messily.

Haddon makes an intelligent stab at how it feels to, for example, not know how to read the faces of the people around you, to be perpetually spooked by certain colours and certain levels of noise, to hate being touched to the point of violent reaction. Life is difficult for the difficult and prickly Christopher in ways that he only partly understands; this avoids most of the obvious pitfalls of novels about disability because it demands that we respect--perhaps admire--him rather than pity him. --Roz Kaveney

2008-09-27 A touching novel

I know this book has garnered a large and varied response, ranging from disdain for its unconventional structure and use of vulgar words to an admiration for how it views real life from a detached point of view. However, I found that I rather liked this book, and found it a genuinely touching book.

I won't dwell into how Haddon constructs the story, but Haddon's story is thought-provoking and touching at the same time. Haddon's plot questions the disdain we have towards people who are not of our thinking, and his drawing of the characters is so real that you feel as if you could reach out to touch them. I am struck by the way that Haddon draws the character of Christopher, because in some ways he shares many of our frustrations but yet he is still a loveable character. His untangling of the vicissitudes of everyday people is what propels the story forward. I know the plot may not be the best in how it moves abruptly to the investigation of the murder of a dog to the conflict between his parents. However, once you find that the parental disagreement is the heart of the novel and the dog incident is the key to it, the plot begins to make sense.

I know some people have raised concerns about the vulgarities peppered throughout the book. As such I see that it isn't suitable for children. I'm aware that such words, especially the F-word, are offensive but even so the expletives aren't the essence of the book and don't detract from Christopher's dealings with his predicaments.

In short, I heartily recommend this book to all, as one of the most interesting, and accessible, novels of recent years.