Detailed Notes on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

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Notes on Curious incident …..

 

Let me think. I guess if you don’t take decisions then you won’t do anything. May I be excused if I say Christopher having Asperger Syndrome is very much a red herring to the story of the book? And yet it’s like when I read the Metamite Babies for the first time, I noticed that they amplified people’s tendencies so they do not lie? I anticipated that this book was about truth, lies and betrayal. I don’t know. His narrative is really really transparent in many ways. He says he wrote the book the way he wanted to himself, and there are bits where he talks about how. It sounds like he’s thinking out loud and speaking all the things he could never say. I found myself admiring how he worked things out, even though I’m not hyperlogical like he is. I feel related to Christopher like he relates to the children in his school. Of course this is very much like a Joseph Conrad book: Lord Jim, say, where Marlow is the narrator. I admire Christopher’s taste in literature – Sherlock Holmes – and it was good how he contrasted that to his mother’s. Wait a minute, I think Mark Haddon did that.par

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The opening is really great, with Christopher’s flair for detail, and how he explains he was killed with the fork. We get to see Wellington and why Christopher cares about him so much, and we feel his uncertainity. “A very pale yellow, like chicken”. It’s pretty sparse and like a list. I confess the blurb made me want to read more. We meet Mrs Shears who the dog belongs to.par

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Chapter 3 is the kicker. One would think that if this was a murder msytery you wouldn’t talk about faces. He is proud of his knowledge and he hasn’t learnt to hide it. I don’t know all the countries of the world and all the capital cities. It does connect when he mentions “the dead dog” and he felt sad. What makes Christopher happy is more revealing:par

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* reading about the Apollo space missionspar

* he is still awake at three or four am in the morningpar

* and – this is the kicker – ‘I can pretendd I am the only person in the whole world’.par

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He doesn’t hide his knowledge and he doesn’t hide his difficulties. And he trusts Siobhan enough to ask her to draw the faces – and exactly what they mean. ‘People’s faces move very quickly’. People must feel confused or uncomfortable. At least that is my interpretation of the last face. I can get surprised, scared and angry.par

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Chapter 5 is more dramatic. Christopher meets Mrs Shears. “Dogs have four moods – happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Dogs are faithful and do not tell lies because they cannot talk’. He is very affectionate towards the dog – ‘I lifted him into my arms and hugged him.’ If Christopher doesn’t look at faces – how does he know people and dogs? I know. A facetious question. He describes Mrs Shears’ toenails as bright pink and he notices she has no shoes on. This is as important as the pyjamas, housecoat and her screaming. But it’s still a heirarchy from most to least important. I can really relate when Christopher says he hates being shouted at because he doesn’t know what’s going to happen.par