The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time starts off with a legitimate bang. Right off the first page, before any characters or setting are introduced, the main conflict is revealed.
What happens is that Christopher John Francis Boone (the narrator and hero of the story) finds his neighbor's poodle, Wellington, dead, with a pitchfork in the dog's side. Shortly after, Mrs. Shears accuses Chris of killing the dog, the police come, and basically all hell breaks loose. This section ends with Chris going against his father's word and trying to solve the mystery of "Who Killed Wellington."
Personally, I find the first quarter of the book slightly strange, as far as structure is concerned. We learn about the conflict (Wellington's death), we are introduced to some central characters (Chris' dad, Mrs. Shears), and we learn a lot about Chris. However, we don't learn too much about the setting.
Yes, it's obvious that the story takes place in England. The language (profanity is introduced on page 4 and continues for the most part throughout the story), culture references ("football" instead of "soccer"), and some geographical references (refer to USA as "America" instead of "US", camping trips to France), tell you that it's a very English story. But apart from a brief visit to the police station (where Chris stayed in his 2m x 2m x 2m jail cell), not much is really revealed about the setting other than it takes place in a suburban town in England.
Other than that structural problem (which really isn't a problem, but more of a different way of progressing the story), the book is quite exciting. I'm glad I chose it. It is...uniquely written, with the 233 chapters (which are prime numbers) and multiple graphs and charts. It also has, personally, the most interesting character in most of the books I read.
...by the way, this has exactly 302 words in it.
--Zachary (aka Zachasaurus Rex)
Good job so far - Elliot and Bethany. I am sure the Zach and Sarah will be posting full on soon :) Ms. Morton
ReplyDeleteI'm laughing... Completely forgot about that one detail about his jail cell being 2m x 2m x 2m. This again shows Christopher's attention to detail and psychological need to remember everything about his surroundings.
ReplyDeleteI also have to agree with you about the setting. I pictured it in my head very easily, although other people might've wanted more detail to thoroughly understand it.