The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Mark Haddon wrote this book in 2003 and it completely overshadowed what he did before! The novel was longlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize and won an award in 2004. The narrator (Christopher Boone) lives with his father in Swindon and suffers from autism. However no specific disability is mentioned in the book. He describes some aspects of his condition but he never gives it a label. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a kind of detective story that takes Chris beyond his own world and this will lead him to discover many things about himself and his family as well. All in all the novel is very funny but heartbreaking as well. By the end of the book, Christopher isn´t any more the same person as before and neither is the reader after finishing the book.
The novel is a bit unusual for several reasons:
- unusual main character
- unusual narrative techniques.
Do you agree? Can you explain why? Read the following notes to understand a bit better the structure of the novel.

 

The curious incident of the dog in the night from ajdk


Answer the following questions about the book:
1. Read the first paragraph of the novel. What do you learn about him? What is important to him? How does he see things?
2. Who is Siobhan? Why does Christopher tear the piece of paper that Shiobhan has drawn for him?
3. Why does Chris use footnotes, drawings, lists, pictures and so on?
4. What´s the setting in the story? Is it important in the story in itself? 
5. What kind of incident does he have with a policeman? What do you think of it? Do you think the policeman knows or understand something about Chris´ behaviour?
6. Why are prime numbers important to him^? What does he say about them?
7. Describe Chris´relationship with his father. What does he think about his father? What does his father think about Chris? What do you think about them?
8. In the novel there are some ideas about death. What´s Chris´opinion about that?
9.  What does he think about lies?
10. Who is Chris most important suspect in the murder case? Why?
11. Truth is important  in Chris´world. Why?
12. Why does He compare himself to Sherlock Holmes?
13. How does he use his memory to understand and interpret different situations?
14. In which way is he different from other people?
15. What type of language do we have in the book? Give examples
16. He also speaks about religions. What´s his opinion about this topic?
17. Who are the most important characters in the novel? In which way do they relate to each other?
18. Do you think we have some differences between the Chris who starts the novel and the Chris we have at the end of the novel? Justify your answers.
19. Did you like the novel? Who is your favourite character? What have your learnt?