‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ Book Review

Izzy

‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ Book Review


If you have heard of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, it is probably because it was assigned reading for a high school English class. Indeed, I’d seen shelves upon shelves of this novel in my school library, but it was only in the first year of university that I decided to give it a read.

The book is about fifteen year old British boy Christopher John Francis Boone who is heavily implied to be on the autism spectrum. His narrative voice is, I believe, the single biggest draw about this book. Bursting with character, refreshingly unpredictable, reading through his thoughts can be described as entering a funhouse. Or perhaps a NASA spacecraft assembly facility. The book is chock full of ‘quirks’. Christopher swings between including too many unnecessary details and not giving enough. His inability to understand metaphors is sometimes played for laughs. Taking a train to London is complicated by nervous breakdowns, inability to follow instructions, and breaking the law on accident. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time takes us for a walk in Christopher’s shoes, and what a strange and bewildering experience it is.

But, is that a good thing?

After finishing the book I learned a fact that made me almost completely change my perception of the story – the author, Mark Haddon, knows very little about autism or Asperger’s syndrome. By his own admission, he did not do research, and instead focused on writing something that he himself found real, and hope that readers will find it real as well. Now, this is not a bad strategy if the character you were writing was of your own creation. If you can write a realer-than-life robot or alien or fairy into your novel, you deserve all the praise! But the waters are a little murkier when the character is seen as a representation of real people. The way Christopher is written deliberately articulates how different he is from ‘normal’ people, on all of the things he does that we don’t do, with a focus on the extreme. It was very jarring for me to learn that the twists and turns of this narrator’s mind were not based off extensive research or first-hand experience of what it is like to have Christopher’s condition, but rather the fantastical daydreams of someone who has admitted to being ignorant. Furthermore, the ‘quirks’ that keep the story afloat are often exaggerated stereotypes of autism, which may compound on the discrimination that neurodivergent individuals already experience in real life.

Because looking at it from that perspective, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is not a book about a character, it’s a book about a caricature, that has been played with, inflated, and twisted for the entertainment of neurotypical outsiders. Why did Haddon write to make something seem real, when Asperger’s is real?

That the most influential book about this condition is cantered not on what it actually is, but rather what an uneducated individual thinks it is, makes me somewhat uncomfortable. This book is assigned reading to a significant portion of students in the Australian secondary education system every year. The fact that it is somewhat controversial is not in itself a deficit – other books like The Crucible by Arthur Miller or To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee have also been criticised for inaccurate or biased portrayal of the experiences of historically disadvantaged groups. In fact, I suspect that books with weak points like this are deliberately chosen so that students have avenues for critique. My only concern is that the message that Christopher should not be taken as a literal, reliable representation of Asperger’s may be lost if the teacher does not manage to highlight Mark Haddon’s confession, or if readers pick up the book outside a classroom context.

Final thoughts: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time may be worth a read, but I strongly encourage readers to gain an understanding of the lived experience of autism spectrum disorders beforehand, as to avoid being contaminated by negative stereotypes this book may communicate. Alternatively, read a book written by an author who is on the autism spectrum themselves.

Izzy

请多指教

行者之心

没有读过这本书，但知道它是一部获奖作品还被列入中学生书单，猜想它应该不错
不过你能直接指出此书的诸多不足非常难能可贵

snapdragon

Izzy 发表于 27-8-2020 17:35
请多指教

特别棒，受你的影响，我们也开始听这本书了。听完会来交流一下

你是这个论坛里第一个写英文书评的，也是观点最全面的一位楼主。加油！

Izzy

非常感谢两位的留言，谢谢鼓励

春浅

欢迎有才的朋友如楼主分享英文书评
年版看到应该会来交流的
此地清净，安心慢慢写

行者之心

Izzy 发表于 29-8-2020 11:27
非常感谢两位的留言，谢谢鼓励

加油

欧阳京

After finishing the book I learned a fact that made me almost completely change my perception of the story – the author, Mark Haddon, knows very little about autism or Asperger’s syndrome.

很好奇，对asperger一无所知，怎能写一本关于asPerger的书？
那到底是出于求知还是出于having some fun才读它呢？老师布置这个作业出于什么目的？

snapdragon

本书主人公情商忽高忽低，也其原生家庭也有关吧。他没有一点感情，对自己母亲的事情也没有一丝波澜。

情商有时有点高：
他喜欢狗，但看到狗狗死了，觉得狗狗好无辜，他只是疑惑，没有一丝的感情。
更多是情商低：
警察来了，touch 他，他会打警察；但警察面前面对爸爸帮他的辩解也是表现出了低情商教科书级般的症状

感觉他有点象 Sheldon. He can't tell lies 因此他认为别人也一样无法 tell lies. 这里感觉有点象《三体》里面的 aliens， can't lies.

总之，我们听完更多的是分析这个主角。

从楼主这里学到了从作者的角度来分析一本书，从这个角度上来说，再次谢谢楼主分享。希望有更多分享。

确实，主人公一吐或者一晕就失忆这种症状，好象是作者确实不太了解自闭症的症状？

snapdragon

另外，在本书中有写到这个 game.
@行者之心 记得有跟您说过。

You are on a game show on television. On this game show the idea is to win a car as a prize. The game show host shows you three doors. He says that there is a car behind one of the doors and there are goats behind the other two doors. He asks you to pick a door. You pick a door but the door is not opened. Then the game show host opens one of the doors you didn't pick to show a goat (because he knows what is behind the doors). Then he says that you have one final chance to change your mind before the doors are opened and you get a car or a goat. So he asks you if you want to change your mind and pick the other unopened door instead. What should you do?

行者之心

annahw 发表于 30-8-2020 23:27
另外，在本书中有写到这个 game.
@行者之心 记得有跟您说过。

要换，这样获奖的概率提高一倍。本来是三分之一的得奖率，交换后变成三分之二