The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon

The gift of genius often accompanies the curse of aberrance (Van Gogh, Einstein, Mozart are great examples) – for the lack of a subtler word. Sometimes insensitivity is a by-product of ignorance, but that’s something that can be emasculated with the knowledge of the intricate conundrum that we somehow never try to solve. Abnormalities like autism, dyslexia are such conundrums that man has not been able to comprehend fully. But by stepping into the shoes of individuals afflicted with such conditions, one can take a crucial step. Perhaps Mark Haddon’s award-winning piece is one small step in that direction. And he does a commendable job of weaving a beautiful chronicle with elaborate patches of sagacity and insight.

15 year old Christopher, diagnosed of Asperger Syndrome (a form of autism), is saddened by the murder of his neighbor’s dog. According to his father who he lives with, Christopher’s mother Judy is dead.

As the reader discovers, Christopher John Francis Boone is unusual in ways more than one, some of them being:

• He is exceptionally sharp in mathematics which is also his obsession. He loves playing with prime numbers, like squaring them
• He loves solving puzzles and takes to drawing charts and diagrams of things to make things easier and methodical.
• He has a photographic memory and can recall any moment in his life instantly
• He is a sucker for precision and orderliness, and doesn’t like stranger people or places, especially hospitals
• He cannot comprehend metaphors like “an apple in one’s eye”, and equates it in literal fashion as an apple INSIDE someone’s eyes.
• He doesn’t understand abstract art and what it represents.
• He hates the color yellow, but loves red. As a result, he makes his food appear more red, in case it is yellow, in order to make it edible.
• He can only register emotions as happy and sad, and is unaware of those that populate the emotional spectrum between these two. He cannot make out facial expressions and their connotations.
• The more the number of red cars he comes across in a day, the more auspicious it is. The more the yellow cars, the worse the day
• He is averse to anyone’s touch, and…
• He cannot lie and doesn’t comprehend lies

He puts on his thinking cap and embarks on an adventure to find the abominable person responsible for the death of the poor creature. To document his findings, he maintains a book, methodically and meticulously making notes of all his discoveries a la Sherlock Holmes.

His father, Ed Boone, discovers the book, and a fight ensues following which the father confiscates Christopher’s most prized possession. In his quest to get his book back, Christopher uncovers a bundle of letters written, apparently posthumously, by his mother. Of course, that evokes his curiosity, and he finds out that his father had lied to him about his mother’s death – she is infact, alive.

Ostensibly breaking his trust, Ed confesses to killing the dog to Christopher’s shock (to redeem himself and restore Christopher’s faith in him). A traumatized Christopher believes that his own life is in danger and decides to join his mother in London, after weighing his limited options (by making flowcharts, and solving equations).

Armed with the perspective of the world imparted by his best friend and teacher, Siobhan, Christopher undertakes a perilous journey to find and reunite with his mother Judy. Dodging strangers, and overcoming his distaste of new places, he reaches London to meet his mother who now lives with Mr. Shears. His mother is flabbergasted when she finds out that Ed lied to Christopher and declared her dead to her own son.

Mr. Shears doesn’t like the idea of Christopher living with them, and soon their relationship crumbles under the weight of Christopher’s presence in their lives. Christopher and Judy find a new place and move closer home in Swindon, as Christopher needs to ace his A-levels. His parents come up with a plan where Christopher can spend time with both. As a retribution for his sins, Ed gets a new dog for Christopher as a peace offering. The book finishes here, Christopher announcing that he will go to university and become a top-notch scientist – in essence growing up...

This book is not complex or sinuous in terms of the story, nor is It written eloquently and elegantly like most acclaimed books are. It is simple because it has to be – it is told through an autistic child. The appeal of the book is thus its simplistic profundity, as it sheds light on intricacies that are characteristic of autism – emotional simplification ("Feelings are just having a picture on the screen in your head of what is going to happen tomorrow or next year, or what might have happened instead of what did happen, and if it is a happy picture they smile and if it is a sad picture they cry."), logical simplification (“When I try…[to imagine] an apple in someone's eye, [it] doesn't have anything to do with liking someone a lot and it makes you forget what the person was talking about”), and cognitive depth (“Christopher, tell me what your mother was like,' I can rewind to lots of different scenes and say what she was like in those scenes”). Haddon manages to drive the points home by elucidating on psychological functioning, behavior, and responses of autistic people in a normal setting where the world is practically binary – 1s and 0s, yes and no, true and false, happy and sad – and anything else is undesirable noise. There are no grey areas for such folks.

He takes us on a vicarious journey through the mind of an autistic child, to whom human emotions are as complex as the composition of DNA strands, but math is a child’s play. His observational abilities are astounding, but communication and interpersonal skills have somehow never really developed. He is obsessive regarding his likes and dislikes and he fastidiously adheres to rules and methods he has devised for himself. With respect to his cognitive abilities and mental prowess, he is almost robotic and computer-like, but also extremely anti-social – often finding trouble interpreting human reactions, emotions and creativity.

This book, without getting lost in psychological technicalities and complexities, places us inside the head of an autistic child, and that is what makes it an engrossing read. Mark my words, reading it may be the best education you get about this unfortunate condition, and why autistic people are the way they are.