The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Haddon
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Category: Book
List Price: £10.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £10.98 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  429 reviews
Sales Rank: 12065
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0224063782
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780224063784
ASIN: 0224063782
Publication Date: May 1, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Ex library-withdrawn.front end page removed, Usual stamps, front end page removed. Clean and tidy. Fast dispatch from UK. 4046
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Amazon.co.uk Review
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 424 more reviews...
 Aspergers Syndrome doesnt exist June 15, 2008
1 out of 11 found this review helpful
Ass burgers Syndrome is made up to sell folks drugs
Asparagus Syndrome is made up so Pharmaceutical giants can make billions of dollars.
 Brilliant book June 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read it myself and then with my daughter who is six years old (missing out some of the colourful language). We both got a lot from the book and found it a useful starting point for all kinds of discussions about who we are. Also we have followed up some examples from the book on the net. Great stuff!
 brilliant and easy to read May 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is so easy to read I read it in a few hours. I took it on holiday and everyone read it, including my mum, who has only read 1 book ever before this.
A great read for anyone, old and young. An insight into what goes on in someone elses mind. Funny, sad, interesting. Only good things to say about this book, read it and you'll find out.
Unusual perspective on an unusual murder mystery May 13, 2008
A murder mystery with a difference - from the first page of the first chapter. This first chapter is headed, 2. The next, 3. Then 5, 7 and so on. Let's just say that these numbers aren't of prime importance in solving the mystery, but they do tell us something significant about the narrator.
The teenaged narrator, a sufferer of Asperger Syndrome, is the book's great triumph. The way he introduces himself is formal and precise: 'My name is Christopher John Francis Boone'. He feels comfortable with facts: 'I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,507.' The boy doesn't easily recognise emotions and needs the help of a friend's face dictionary. He doesn't interact easily with others.
These may or may not be typical characteristics of those with various forms of autism, but in any event the portrayal is skilful. Like the boy's avoidance of elided forms (won't, couldn't, it's) so common in spoken English and whose absence sounds so foreign, clumsy or artificial. The narrator is not without emotion. Unlike the owner of the dead dog, Mrs Shears, who doesn't want its blood messing up her clothes, he picks it up affectionately. He then tells us that he put it down again after '4 minutes' and steps 'back 2 metres'. He also notes 'LEAKING blood from the fork holes' of the dog, as though it were some inanimate piece of plumbing. There are clearly differences between his kind of empathy, and his kind of world-view, and that of others.
But empathy is what the reader will probably experience for this unusual and vulnerable teenager, as we are drawn into his different world and see things through his eyes. It is an unusual, and very convincing, perspective.
Touching, funny and a true page turner March 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is very rare to find such a believable narrator, who is so far removed from the author. This is the witty, touching and sometimes harrowing story of a little boy called Christopher who decides to find out who has killed his neighbour's dog. Christopher lets us into his world which is shaped by autism and through his eyes we watch the murder mystery unfold. This is unlike any book I have ever read - the narrative voice is so believable you forget that it was written by a grown man. Christopher is such a great story teller that this is a real page-turner and I managed to read the book in two short sittings. A worthy winner of every award that went Haddon's way - a triumph
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