Awards

-Whitbread Book Awards for Best Novel and Book of the Year

-Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book

-Guardian Children's Fiction Prize

Summary

One night, fifteen year old Christopher John Francis Boone discovers his neighbors dog Wellington with a garden fork sticking in him and decides to find out who the murderer is.  Christopher is also autistic, and when a police man comes to examine the dog, Christopher (due to a misunderstanding) is taken into custody.  Even though he promises his father and the police he will no longer look into the murder, he ignores their wishes and continues his investigaion questioning neighbors and writing everything down in his book.  During his investigation, Christopher discovers that his father was having an affair with the owner of the dog, Mrs. Shears.  One day when his father confiscates the book, Christopher finds letters from his mother (whom his father had said passed away) addressed to him that his father had been hiding for years.  Christopher then sneaks out of his house and goes to London to find his mother.  During this journey he overcomes social anxieties and learns how to cope in the world even though he is autistic.  At the end of the book he manages to surpass his fears and decides to attend a university in another town, which he knows he will be able to do because he was able to discover who the murderer of Wellington was and in the process manages to find the strength within himself.  

Asperger Syndrome
An autism disorder which creates difficulties socializing, repeat behaviors and clumsiness however, no speach or cognative delays.  Many people with Asperger have above avarage intelligence and are good at mathematics and science.  

Major Themes

The Search for Order and Stability

The search for order and stability is easily the most prevalent theme throughout the novel. That is, the entire novel is an account by narrator Christopher Boone of how his world is upended by chaos—the death of a favorite dog, the discovery of a deception regarding his parents—and his struggle to restore order to his life. For Christopher, the desire for order and stability is actually a necessity of living: as he suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism, he needs an ordered and stable life to be happy and safe. Anything that jeopardizes this not only damages his mental state, but also brings him physical pain.

Subjectivity

Christopher’s condition causes him to see the world in an uncommon way, and much of the novel allows the reader to share Christopher’s unique perspective. For instance, although the novel is a murder mystery, roughly half the chapters in the book digress from this main plot to give us Christopher’s thoughts or feelings on a particular subject, such as physics or the supernatural. To take one example, he tells us about the trouble he has recognizing facial expressions and the difficulty he had as a child understanding how other people respond to a given situation, explaining his preference for being alone that we see throughout the novel. As the story progresses, the book gradually departs from the murder-mystery plot and focuses more on Christopher’s character, specifically his reaction to the revelation that his mother never died but rather left the family to live with another man while his father lied about the situation. Throughout these events, the reader typically understands more about Christopher’s situation than Christopher does. When Christopher discovers the letters from his mother hidden in his father’s closet, for example, Christopher invents different reasons to explain why a letter from his mother would be dated after her supposed death. The reader, on the other hand, may recognize immediately that his mother never died and Christopher’s father has been lying to him.

Although the reader recognizes that Christopher has an uncommon perspective of the world, the novel suggests that everyone, in fact, has a subjective point of view. By giving detailed explanations of Christopher’s thoughts, the novel allows the reader to empathize with Christopher. Moreover, by pointing out the irrational behaviors of so-called normal people, such as Christopher’s father’s habit of putting his pants on before his socks, the novel implies that Christopher’s eccentricities are actually typical to a degree. As a result, the reader is able to take on Christopher’s perspective as his own and to understand Christopher’s reasons for behaving as he does. Christopher’s point of view loses its strangeness and seems merely unique.

Minor Themes

Mathematics and Science

There is the importance of mathematics and science - an essential motif, but also of thematic significance as Christopher uses these fields of study to help understand the world around him.

Stability

In Christopher's life, the stability of family is something which seems evident at first, but is shown to be a lie and must be re-established by the end of the novel.

Author’s Biography: Mark Haddon

Haddon was born on September 26, 1962, in Northampton and educated at Uppingham School and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied English. Afterwards, he was employed in several different occupations. One included working with people with disabilities, and another included creating illustrations and cartoons for magazines and newspapers. He lived in Boston, Massachusetts for a year with his wife until they moved back to England. Haddon then took up painting and selling abstract art.

In 1987, Haddon wrote his first children’s book, Gilbert’s Gobstopper. This was followed by many other children’s books, which were often self-illustrated.

In 2003, Haddon won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and in 2004, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Overall Best First Book for his novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Haddon worked with autistic individuals as a young man. He does however recommend that one reads works by people who have Asperger syndrome themselves. In an interview at Powells.com, Haddon claimed that this was the first book that he wrote intentionally for an adult audience; he was surprised when his publisher suggested marketing it to both adult and child audiences (it has been a great hit with teens and adults alike). His second adult novel, A Spot of Bother, was published in September 2006.

Mark Haddon lives in Oxford with his wife, Dr. Sos Eltis, a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, and their two sons.

In July 2009, Haddon wrote on his blog that "curious incident is not a book about asperger’s....if anything it’s a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. The book is not specifically about any specific disorder," and that he is not an expert on autism spectrum disorder or Asperger syndrome.  Haddon added that he "slightly regrets" that the term Asperger's syndrome appeared on the cover of his novel.  More recently, in an interview with The Independent, however he stated that he is now "thoroughly irritated" that the term appeared on the cover because people imagined that he was an expert on the subject and kept contacting and asking him to appear at lectures about autisim. (wiki source)

Author Web Site: 

http://www.markhaddon.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/mark_haddon

Film and Screen Adaptation

A stage adaptation of Haddon's novel can be found in London, England at the National Cinema which was also recorded and broadcasted to cinemas worldwide.

A film version is also currently in the works. 

Questions for further discusion:

-Do you know anyone with Asperger's/autism disorder? If so, do you believe Haddon provided an accurate portrayal of a person suffering from it?

-What is the purpose of the vast array of maps, drawings and diagrams provided throughout the novel? 

-What’s the significance to Christopher’s affection to animals? Why was he able to connect with them more easily than humans?

-Since Christopher avoids being touched, do you think he can experience his parents’ love for him, or do you think he can understand that they love him because they tell him so?

-Do you think Christopher’s mother had a justified reason for leaving?