The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Category: Fiction, Author: Mark Haddon, Publisher: Red Fox De, Price: Rs. 225/-



This is another book that reaffirms my faith on British writers. I know good book reviews don't start like this. But I don't care. It's fiction yet it's not those mind-numbing 'unputdownable' factory-made paperbacks those Americans churn out. This is actually a murder-mystery but it's not the whodunnits. Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is about love, relationships, handicap, loneliness, murder, investigation and also Algebra, Physics, and Astronomy. And then, yeah, also prime numbers. Oh yeah, this book is children's fiction.

Such a bizzarre combination is enough for somebody not to pick up this book. But I found myself smiling -and laughing out loud at times-through the book till the last few pages, and towards the end, feeling extremely gloomy. I found myself nodding vigourously for every page. It's bitterly humourous yet heart-wrenchingly serious. Mark Haddon transends the barrier of childern's literature by adding adults too in that category. A 10 year old child can read this book and perfectly understand it and will even find it very interesting. As an adult, I could put myself into the shoes of the protoganist, (a fifteen year Christopher Boone), and feel exactly how he felt.

I'm not going to reveal even a single line of the story here because it's important that the reader savour every line of the story from Haddon's words because it's so fresh and innocent and hence beautiful. For once, a successful Children's literature need not contain anyone waving their magic wands. And thank god for that.

As a perfect end to this review,

'Gave me that rare, greedy feeling of: this is so good I want to read it all at once but I mustn't or it will be over too soon'

- The Observer

While reading this book, I felt exactly how The Observer felt above.