The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night

Lona picked The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.  Book club was held at Anne's place.  Rebekah and Lona had organised a lovely platter of cheeses, salami, crackers and sweets.  Present were: Lona, Rebekah, Chez, Marnie, John, Anne, Paul, Greg, Daniel and Nicole.  The novel was an upbeat choice which reflected Lona's passion for the sciences. We had earlier teased him that he would not be permitted to choose a physics textbook for book club, but he cleverly managed to choose a novel which featured a protagonist with a strong scientific bent.


The novel's protagonist, Christopher is an autistic teenager who struggles socially.  Christopher's affliction is a strong theme in the book and the story is coloured by Christopher's unique world view. Amongst the group there were varying reactions to this, from gloominess to irritation to real humour. One of the key discussions was the relevance to the author's life.  Haddon is recorded as having no particular experience or knowledge of autism, which to some seemed implausible given his apparent familiarity with higher level autism. It should be noted though that Haddon does not state that Christopher is autistic.


Enjoyment level of the book varied from the perfect score (Rebekah) down to 6.5 (John, Paul and Nicole).  Other scores were: Greg and Anne - 7, Marnie and Chez - 7.5, Daniel - 9, Lona - 9.5.