Section 1/4 - Journal Entry

After reading the first quarter of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I can say with honesty that I am extremely happy with my novel choice. The book is extremely intriguing (I am in fact already much further past the first quarter!) and has caused me to almost miss my stop on the bus a couple of times.

Being thrown into Christopher’s autistic perspective and the main conflict nearly right away in the book was interesting, and helped reflect his character. The dreary, lower-middle class setting of Swindon sets the dark tone of the book perfectly and reflects the town’s characters’ mostly neutral feelings towards life.

One of the biggest draws of the book is clearly the humour, which Mark Haddon wrote very intelligently as Christopher’s does not usually realize he’s funny. In fact, when he does purposely attempt to tell a joke, it is related to mathematicians and is more insulting than hilarious. The diagrams of things he sees (either literally or in his mind) help the reader grasp a sense of how he thinks, and this is very interesting.

For example, Christopher drew a diagram of a complicated math game he played in his mind to calm him down while he was in stressful situations, though for the average person, it would probably only stress them out more! The rapidity at which things happen often leaves me having to reread a couple of paragraphs back in order to understand, as Christopher hardly stops to breathe, though this is simply a reflection of his personality.

Speaking of Christopher’s personality, he’s incredibly positive given what happens to him. He is constantly swore at and insulted by strangers and authority figures, and can count on one hand the people who actually care about him. He doesn’t even try to defend himself with the police officer. It is really quite a dark book once you look past the humour, and often leaves you feeling guilty after reading it for a while. His mostly mellow way of reacting to others reminds of a recent biography I read of the alternative rock band Radiohead. Lead singer and songwriter Thom Yorke simply didn’t feel the need to defend himself, and did what he loved.

This book doesn’t really have anything to teach you, though it is an out-of-the-ordinary read. I read on its Wikipedia page that a film adaptation is in the works, and I’m certainly looking forward to it.