A ‘curious’ piece of work, Mark Haddon’s book evokes compelling images of the disordered adult world as perceived by an autistic teenager, Christopher Boone. Through his extreme literal understanding of the world, the narrator-protagonist does what most grown-ups struggle to do and fail miserably – set a semblance of order and security in their otherwise muddled lives. Here Christopher succeeds in an innocent way because he sees things as they are. Unlike most of us!

As a mathematical wizard fascinated by logic, ratiocination and the mysteries unfolded by science, the disabled child-hero is impervious to emotions. Human beings flummox him because they “do a lot of talking without using any words” and they “often talk using metaphors” which he thinks are lies. For instance, “imagining an apple in someone’s eye doesn’t have anything to do with liking someone a lot and it makes you forget what the person was talking about”. Further, he is unable to tell lies, which gives rise to amusing difficulties in his normal social interactions. He positively hates people touching him or laughing and shouting at him. Moreover, he cannot appreciate jokes. Ironically, these are the nuances of Christopher’s hermetic existence that pierce through the human fallibilities of the world of experience.

What Christopher’s familiarity encompasses is “all countries of the world and every prime number up to 7507”. Endowed with an exceptional memory, he doubles 2s in his mind for relaxation. With his detached powers of observation, he identifies with the intelligence of his favourite sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. It is essentially this zeal with which he investigates life and its enigma. In the process, the readers’ response is beautifully manoeuvred from a profound wonder to a deep regard and empathy for such an ingenious creation of the author.

With all such idiosyncrasies, Christopher embarks on an apparently self-defined journey of self-discovery when he finds his neighbour’s dog named Wellington, is killed by a pitchfork. Encouraged by his counselor, Siobhan at school, he starts writing a murder- mystery novel as he assigns himself the detective task of solving the puzzle behind the dog’s uncanny death.

But the odyssey takes an interesting turn – much to the surprise of Christopher who gradually learns to cope with the emotional and moral chaos as manifested in the lives of his parents. His adventure from the small town of Swindon to the big city of London is a crucial juncture in the book. It is an exploration of the unknown and unfamiliar for Christopher who has so far led a circumscribed life in his hometown.

As he unravels messy and complex secrets unwittingly, he is forced to reorient his fiercely scientific and crippled point of view. In the end, the reader is left with this ultimate riddle as to how far Christopher is open to change and can adapt his world view in accordance with it.

The plain and straightforward style of Christopher’s dislocated narration is a deception that Mark Haddon employs to the hilt. He incorporates diagrams, maps, timetables and maths problems that give us a vivid glimpse of the protagonist’s psyche. While Christopher’s handicap makes the narration real and honest, the hidden layers of meaning reveal the agonizing perplexities of life itself. This is the stark truth that Haddon lays bare (albeit subtly) before the reader. It is implied cleverly in Christopher’s initial remark about his own book, “This will not be a funny book”.

But Mark Haddon is “a wise and bleakly funny writer”. So the book is replete with ‘curious incidents’ that humour the serious business of life. It happens especially when innocence and experience clash in Christopher’s conversations with his parents and neighbours. The incongruity in their respective perspectives creates droll and delight for the readers.

A brilliant and moving book, Mark Haddon gives us one of the most endearing characters in Christopher John Francis Boone. Through his “great insight into the autistic mind”, he shows the value of love, respect, understanding, adjustment and tolerance in life. In the final analysis, Haddon reveals the baffling truth of life – whether we approach it with subjective emotionalism or objective rationalism. As Christopher says – “Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spend all your time thinking about them”. This mystification is the outstanding appeal of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

- Satarupa Ray