Bookreport The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

Written by Mark Haddon

The story is about an autistic boy who lives with his father in Swindon. When a dog gets killed, he wants to find out who is the murderer and to write it all down in a book. While researching he finds out that his mother, whom he was told that she had died two years ago, is still alive. He also finds out that his father killed the dog. He’s afraid of him now, so he decides to run off to London and live with his mother.

The main character is Christopher Boone. He’s 15 years, 3 months and 2 days old. He tells you this story because he has Asperger’s Syndrome and autistic people like him tell you things very precisely. He is also extremely smart. He describes himself as ‘a mathematician with some behavioral difficulties’. He lives in Swindon with his father and he believes his mother is dead. I think Christopher changes the moment he runs off because at that moment he has to do it all on his own. When he finally arrives at his mother’s house, he feels very relieved and proud because he did it all by himself. I think this gives him more self-confidence and if he can do this, he can do everything.

The title is The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Actually this is a very logical title because Christopher is very curious who killed Wellington, the dog and because it happened while it was night.

In the end his mother left London and moved close to where his father lived. Christopher still doesn’t trust his father but when his mother is sick he has to live with his father for a short period. His father is trying very hard to regain Christopher’s trust. Eventually he changes living between his father and mother.

I did expect this ending a little but it was more something I hoped for. I like the ending because he meets his mother and he likes her. Christopher now doesn’t have to choose between his parents. An even better ending would have been if his parents would get back together again and they could be a happy family.

I dislike Mr. Shears, the old neighbor because he took Christopher’s mother to London and lives with her there. When Christopher came to London Mr. Shears and his mother were arguing a lot. He also wasn’t very nice to Christopher and didn’t want him to live with them in London. In the end Christopher’s mother left Mr. Shears because she wanted to be with Christopher.

I was surprised that Christopher’s father suddenly said that he had killed Wellington. It was an awkward way of telling him and I didn’t expect it at all.

The writer Mark Haddon had worked with children with disabilities. In those days autism was not being used that much yet, so it was not until later that he realized, that a lot of children he worked with were autistic. That could be a reason for writing this book. Maybe he wrote the book to make other people aware of autism and the consequences it has on people’s life, both their families as well as the autistic person himself.

It is a very realistic book which could easily be made into a film because a lot of people know someone with autism and would like to know more about it. A rough outline of the filmscript could be the same as the summery above. The start of the film with Christopher finding Wellington in the neighbor’s garden is a catching and impressive start of the film. The happy ending is what every film needs.

I did like the book because it gives a lot of information about autism and what it’s like to be autistic and all the consequences it has in ones daily life. I know an autistic boy myself, but I had no idea how he feels or thinks because autists cannot communicate their feelings. Now I had a chance to look inside an autistic boy’s head. I didn’t like all the facts he described, but although it’s boring to read, it gives you a very good idea of how Christopher’s mind works.