The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

by Mark Haddon 

Review of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

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       Those who voted this novel as one of the best 100 need to have their heads examined.  I'm not sure that I would call it a "good" book, but perhaps.  It is definitely not excellent or outstanding.  You wonder where critics come up with their thoughts about books like this.  I guess they see something artistic or intellectual about its unique perspective, but that only carries the book so far.  I will definitely not be using this site to help me chose my next book.  Before reading this book, I had just completed Ben-Hur.  Ben-Hur is a bit of a struggle at times because of the language of the time (it was written it the late 1800's), but it runs circles around the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.  And Ben-Hur didn't even make the list.  Weak!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon reviewed by mark robertson

       This book starts like a great clunky machine, abrupt prose and stuccato sentences leave you wondering what it must be like for autistic people, there follows a grinding and cranking as the story starts to piece together like a mosaic in process, It starts to open insights into feelings we all surely have about right and wrong, morals and limitations and then like a just lit match in the dark, it finishes leaving you feeling you became briefly, empathically, part of something previously inexplicable....  needless to remind you, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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

       I loved this book, what a suprise. It is so easy to read and just pure enjoyment. A must read for everyone. Althought there are some bad words so maybe not good for younger children, but otherwise I thought it was great. 4 out of 5 stars for me.

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

       Please give this book a try. I must admit that I had never heard of it and only read it because of my wife and her excitement about this list. It was such a great surprise. A really special book.

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

       This is a revealing novel into the world of a an ingenious and cursed boy. It make your heart ache and rise up again. Some truly disturbing parts and twists and turns that you never see coming. A truly amazing novel.

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

Synopsis:

Christopher is 15 years old & lives with his dad. He likes logic, maths & science because he understands them. What he doesn't understand is people - he hates being touched & cannot respond in the "normal" way to the emotions of others. In his opinion, animals are much better - they don't tell lies because they can't talk. So, when his neighbour's dog,  Wellington, is mysteriously murdered with a garden fork, Christopher takes it upon himself to decipher the curious incident of the dog in the night-time & solve the crime in the style of his hero, Sherlock Holmes, & write a book about it as he does. In doing so, he unravels more secrets than he had bargained for & embarks upon a voyage of self-discovery that will take him away from the small town where everything is as he likes it, into a wider world where everything is confusing, scary & strange.

Review:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has won the Whitbread Book of the Year award, the Guardian Children’s Fiction & the Book Trust Teenage Fiction award - & deservedly so! If it hadn’t been for the fact that I had other important things to be doing, I wouldn’t have put it down at all. As it was, even with the forced intermissions, it feels like I read this at warp-speed!

Haddon has a way of drawing the reader into the characters, especially that of Christopher, the focus & narrator of the story, who he has written so well that identifying with him & his problems becomes easy, even if those problems are uncomfortable to deal with. Autism is a difficult subject to tackle due to the preconceived ideas many people have, but it has been mastered artfully here & I felt that Haddon was completely in control with incredibly well-researched material. It felt real - compellingly so.

In the end, I think the main message of this story is universal: Limits are self-imposed & when we have to courage to push the boundaries, we open ourselves to new possibilities & find that we can accomplish anything.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon reviewed by Kell Smurthwaite (On the Shelf Reviews)

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