The most interesting innovation of Mark Haddon's novel is that it is narrated entirely by an autistic teenager, Christopher Boone. Christopher's autism manifests in a variety of ways: he prefaces each episode of his narrative with a prime number; he expresses puzzlement at things like jokes and sarcasm; and, most compellingly, he maintains a nearly emotionless affect in the face of highly traumatic events--except when he feels too much pressure, at which point he huddles into a ball and screams.

But only a few events can break through Christopher's mental blocks, and the death of a neighbor's friendly dog is not one of them. The novel begins with Christopher encountering the dog lying in the middle of the road. Christopher observes: "The dog was dead. There was a garden fork sticking out of the dog. The points of the fork must have gone all the way through the dog and into the ground because the fork had not fallen over. I decided that the dog was probably killed with the fork because I could not see any other wounds in the dog and I do not think you would stick a garden fork into a dog after it had died for some other reason, like cancer, for example, or a road accident. But I could not be certain about this."

Christopher decides to investigate the dog's murder, not out of any affection for the dog (at least not overtly) but as an intellectual challenge, similar to the science and math problems that he enjoys solving. Haddon effectively describes Christopher's detached, analytical perspective to the dog's murder, the same perspective that he applies to the rest of his life. As cold as Christopher can seem, however, his unusual mental state leads to some strikingly beautiful passages. See, for instance, Christopher's dispassionate ruminations about the end of the universe: "And when the universe has finished exploding, all the stars will slow down, like a ball that has been thrown into the air, and they will come to a halt and they will all begin to fall toward the center of the universe again. And then there will be nothing to stop us from seeing all the stars in the world because they will all be moving toward us, gradually faster and faster, and we will know that the world is going to end soon because when we look up into the sky at night there will be no darkness, just the blazing light of billions and billions of stars, all falling."

Christopher's speculation about the end of the universe is but one of many asides he makes during the course of the narrative. These asides are natural: for Christopher, humans are only sometimes as interesting as the non-human concepts that he enjoys, such as prime numbers, the senselessness of metaphors, or the detailed contents of his own pockets. But Haddon manages to demonstrate that, despite Christopher's seeming distance from the people around him, he is in fact capable of love: one of the most touching passages in the book comes when Christopher sends a card covered with pictures of red automobiles to his mother. (Read the book and you'll understand what the card means.)

Without ever saying as much, Haddon also effectively conveys how difficult it must be to care for a child like Christopher, who rigorously analyzes every question but oftentimes lacks common sense, and who fluctuates between complete disinterest in the world around him and screaming fits of panic. As shameful as it may seem, you will sometimes feel like tearing your hair out over Christopher's seemingly stupid decisions, especially when he seems not to consider the consequences of his actions on others--until you realize that children like Christopher really do make such decisions every day, and that the frustration they generate is the reason that they are often abandoned or simply ignored.

Christopher's autism somewhat masks the fact that the actual story of The Curious Incident is a relatively simplistic melodrama of the worst kind, filled with passion, lies, and betrayals (sexual and otherwise). Without Christopher's unique perspective, this book would only be a mediocre soap opera. In fact, even filtered through Christopher's viewpoint, the story is sometimes laughably overwrought. But by showing us this story through an autistic child's eyes, Haddon has created a compelling and even moving book.

Copyright © 2004 Steven Wu