More recently, high-functioning autism is lumped together with Asperger’s syndrome for diagnostic purposes. The more I study the two the less I believe they differ in any substantial way. However, for many parents, a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome is more palatable than a diagnosis of autism, as for years autism has been characterized as a totally debilitating affliction (which ain’t necessarily so).

I asked my son to answer the following questions about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Here’s what an autistic teenager has to say about the book and specifically about Christopher, the (unlabeled) protagonist of the story.

GRN: Why do you think Christopher was not squeamish about picking up the dead and bloodied dog?

DS: Autistics have a very realistic view of life and death in general, as Christopher points out in his statement about the nonexistence of heaven in his mind, due to the fact that heaven is in space and dead people can’t reach space without rockets. So picking up a dead animal would be not much different from picking up a stack of books for an autistic. Granted, I would be pretty troubled if it was an animal I knew well (such as Lily, our recently deceased dog) but when it comes to other animals, such as the preserved infant pigs we dissected in a biology class, I find it just as simple as anything else, whereas my partners are frightened of even touching the pig, due to their “less grounded” views of death.

GRN: What are your thoughts about the faces Siobhan draws and Christopher’s reaction to them?

DS: The first part, where he draws them as a reference, seems very logical and helpful (for him, no different than notes in a math class) and thus, a normal autistic behavior. When Siobhan jokes about the reaction doing this may provoke from other people, and Christopher gets upset about it, that also seems normal for an autistic. The reasoning for this is that when I think people are making fun of me, I usually stop talking instantly and become very downcast. If they were simply having fun, but not maliciously, they often explain this, and everything goes on happily. Thus, it seems logical that a much more autistic person would have at least a similar reaction to my own.

GRN: What do you think about Christopher’s attitude toward jokes?

DS: In reference to jokes, I find that while he may find them difficult, I have a great sense of humor (or so those people say in response to my joking comments), as do many autistics. In fact, one renowned internet “aspie” who goes by the name of “oddizm” has an extensive collection of “You Might be an Aspie if…” jokes, in a parody/tribute to Jeff Foxworthy. So jokes may come as difficult to some with autism, to others it is natural. Really, not that different from a non-autistic.

GRN: Christopher says Siobhan taught him that people do a lot of talking without using any words. Is this something you’ve recognized in your experience?

DS: People do indeed do a lot of talking without any words, and it is very difficult for autistics to pick up on this body language. This is probably related to the tendency of the autistic to not make or even avoid eye contact. I usually avoid it myself, but why, I really can’t say. As such, I usually miss if someone is upset or stressed or jubilant unless they say something. Some autistics can’t even infer emotion from the tone of voice, and for them, conversation becomes much more difficult.

GRN: Christopher says, “I can’t tell lies.” Does his explanation make sense to you?

DS: As autistics (such as Christopher) tend to relay facts with a nearly meticulous precision, lying is very hard. He knows his age up to the current day, and when asked how old he is, will relay all this information. Because he often must relay all information, lying becomes a very difficult process, because he has to get all information across, and he cannot choose between details as quickly as someone who might just say “I went to the library” when they went to the movies. He states early on that thinking of one falsity produces many others, ranging from the simple, such as “This pen is red” to “There are cows in the room.” Obviously, this would make lying nigh impossible.

GRN: Christopher has a habit of taking all the letters in someone’s name, assigning each letter a numeric value (A=1, B=2, until Z=26), and adding them up to see if they match a prime number. Is your name a prime number, and is it easy for you to tell?

DS: Again, this is mostly possible because Christopher is a more “severe” autistic than me, which means he is more limited socially, but much more intelligent. It sort of makes him like a computer. I have no idea if my name’s number (137) is a prime number, but judging from a few quick divisor tests (adding up the digits to check for multiples of 3, looking at the end numbers for 2, 4, or 5, etc.) I think it is a prime number. Again, I really have no idea, but someone with more advanced autism would find this task as easy as lifting a small rock.

GRN: My name is a prime number (131), btw, but then again, I might be autistic. I’m just saying.

GRN: Do you think Christopher’s decision to run away seemed realistic?

DS: An autistic, when faced with a frightening decision, is usually put out of balance. In this case, they think even less rationally than a normal person, because they are less effective at adapting than a normal person. While running away may not have been the most likely choice, it was very realistic how he was portrayed in the following chapters.

GRN: Do you think that Christopher’s father is a bad person?

DS: The man was confronted with his wife cheating on him. That sort of thing causes immense stress, and like he said, the dog was quite polar in its attitudes. If a dog attacked you shortly after you had learned of your spouse cheating on you, you would probably retaliate on it quite viciously as well. Maybe not with a garden fork, but at least you would shove the dog away. This, combined with the fact that he tries to make amends with Christopher and attempts to be nice to him whenever possible, leads me to believe that he’s not exactly a bad person, but probably not in the best of mental states.

GRN: What do you think of Christopher’s mother?

DS: Clearly, she also cares for Christopher. However, she does not seem to care for his father much. Given that you should be very mindful of whom you marry, I think she may have been not exactly good. That said, she was willing to cooperate with Christopher’s father, and was also willing to take Christopher in after having abandoned him, so she is not exactly a bad person either. It’s not a very clear-cut persona in my opinion, so it’s hard to judge.

GRN: What do you think of Christopher’s eating habits? I mean, a ham sandwich with strawberry jam? Baked beans? Broccoli? Get real. You don’t eat any foods in combination, unless you count cheese/flour tortillas or noodles with butter.

DS: Christopher does have some strange eating habits, but I think this is mostly because of his avoidance of yellow or brown items. Some things will irritate an autistic so thoroughly that he/she will avoid them almost completely. I, for one, cannot stand the feel of cotton. I try to avoid touching cotton balls at any time, and sometimes even touching socks is a bit unnerving. This habit can cover anything that relates, and with something as broad as color being Christopher’s avoidance item, it is acceptable that he would have strange eating habits. In addition, the red food coloring bottle he carries would help him when eating yellow foods that he likes, which may amend it somewhat.

GRN: Overall, what is your opinion of this book? I know you’ve read it several times; why? Do you think that this book is a good introduction to people like Christopher? How so?

DS: I like this book quite a bit, mostly because of the interesting, yet off-topic points he brings up. An example would be the part with the three “intellectuals,” for lack of a better word, and the cow. I read it several times, mostly because it’s just a very interesting book. Giving you a “why” for my repetitions is difficult. When meeting people like Christopher, this book would have some helpful information, but often it’s best just to go with experience. You wouldn’t touch someone right off the bat when you meet them (well, maybe you would, but only in rare cases) and the autistic in question will often state explicitly that you shouldn’t touch him, if he is accustomed to this. Thus, this book is really quite descriptive, but it’s best read when you know a bit about autism; then you get an amazing novel.

I’ve added an RSS feed for comments, so it’s easier to follow the discussion. Also, feel free to post your own entry if you feel the need to go off on a tangent! All discussions are welcome.

I’ll start off by saying that I’m probably the only person in the world who didn’t enjoy this book. I am a writer, and I teach creative writing, so first and foremost when I read a book I read it from a writerly perspective – which means I read it for craft. Craft elements in creative writing include a story’s structure, characterization, point of view (who’s perspective the story is told from), description, voice, tone, etc. I teach my students all the time that writing a story is like cooking – it’s all about getting the right balance of ingredients. If you need a little salt, or have too much salt, the meal will not be satisfying – same goes for books.

In the case of The Curious Incident, I think the problem I had was with the point of view. Although I’m really not sure it would work any other way, by telling the story from Christopher’s first-person point of view (first person meaning I or we), the author must write as if with blinders on – we can only know what Christopher sees, feels, thinks etc. The first person point of view is also the most unreliable narrator in fiction – because we are so locked in to one, very narrow perspective – it’s often unclear whether the world we’re seeing is real or what the narrator is feeding us.

It starts with the dog dying. The entire story, finally, is about Christopher’s mother leaving the family – but in order to get to that the dog has to die, and Christopher has to decide to find out who killed the dog. Along the way he moves farther and farther out of his comfort zone in order to solve the mystery. The idea that his father would have take a pitchfork to the neighbor’s dog is wholly unbelievable to me. All I’ve seen of the father is someone who tries his very best to take care of his son, albeit with flaws. I know NOTHING other than what I know from Christopher about his father – or any of the other characters. Therefore, I have no reason to believe that he would’ve killed the dog – honestly, I don’t have any reason to believe anything. The character of Siobhan feels like she’s there only to give Christopher (and us) a moral ground. She’s constantly telling Christopher everything’s okay and that he can talk to her if he feels bad. The older neighbor only appears on the page to tell us that Christopher’s mother isn’t dead. Even the mother herself is something of a caricature – we never know, really, why she left the family. And when Christopher didn’t answer any of her letters – she didn’t think once to come out and find out why? Or even call?

I may be all wrong on this – maybe it’s the inherent nature of Asperger’s that Christopher can only tell us so much about his emotional life – and he certainly can’t tell us the emotional life of anyone else. But I still couldn’t help but feel manipulated by the plot. I never really felt a connection to any of the characters – mainly because I never really felt like I knew any of them. The most important part of story is CONFLICT. There really can’t be a story without it. And while Christopher certainly has a conflict – to find out who killed the dog – I felt like the story was never driven by motivation, and in the end, the story left me unsatisfied. There wasn’t enough on the page, for me, to make a deeper connection to the characters.

I’d love to hear what you think about this – especially if you don’t agree.

Here, too, are some more discussion questions (taken from the publisher’s reading group guide) to get us started:

1. How do you think this novel bridges the gap between literature for adults and children?


2. What do you think Haddon's illustrations add to the story and to our understanding of Christopher's character?


3. Although seemingly ill equipped as the narrator of a book, Christopher's character succeeds in eliciting a wide range of emotions in the reader. How do you think Haddon uses his protagonists voice to touch his audience in such a way?


4. Discuss the relationship between father and son in the novel. How well do you think Christopher's father copes with his son's condition?


5. The author has used his extensive knowledge of Asperger's syndrome to allow us to see the world through Christopher's eyes, how do you think the story further enhances our attachment to the character and our enjoyment of the book in general?


6. How far do you think the author has used Christopher's alienating condition to expose intricate truths about our modern lives? Do you think this was his intention in Christopher's exposure of his parent's secret?

And here are some links of interest:

Reading group guide from the Random House, the book's publisher.

An interview with Mark Haddon on Powell's.

Information on Asperger's Disorder from Yale Medical School.

An article in The Guardian.

I invite you all to join in!
Best,
Cara

A little too excited to wait until Monday to post how I feel so far about this book... it is different from what I am used to reading. I have to admit I was put off at the beginning but the more I got to know Christopher the more I began to enjoy the book. It is a quick read and I cannot wait to talk with everyone about it.

Happy Reading...
Amanda

Judy
www.knottyneedle.blogspot.com