Playing with Form, Giving Lots of Feels in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time


Mark Haddon’s TheCurious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a bare bones first-person account of some days in the life of 15-year old Christopher, a young math wiz from Swindon, England whose autism affects how he experiences the world, how he relates to it, and how he tells his story.

Haddon does service to his character and his book by laying it out as though Christopher wrote wrote the whole piece as an exercise in uncovering a mystery: when he finds his neighbor’s dog dead, Christopher sets out to figure out who killed the pup, and writes about his discoveries.

Christopher tells us early on that he doesn’t lie, and everything that happens after that, be it heart-breaking or joyous, feels true. It is an often times painful, visceral ride the reader takes with Christopher.

For a large chunk of the book, Christopher travels from Swindon to London, by foot, train, and subway, when he runs away from home. This solitary venture leads us into less interesting territory. We see how loud noises, strangers’ accidental touches, or bright lights affect Christopher, but these bits went on too long, and disconnected the reader from the more interesting parts, when Christopher interacts with others.

Haddon’s playfulness with form is a strength of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and when the book ends with an addendum wherein Christopher explains a complicated math equation, it doesn’t feel cutesy, annoying, or like Haddon took the idea too far. It feels true to how our narrator, who we've come to like, would end a story. 

Thanks to my niece, Chelsea, for recommending The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

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