THE LIBRARY LIZARD
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME

I became completely hooked by an audio version of Mark Haddon's novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" (Recorded Books, 2003, 4 cassettes) and could hardly wait go walking so I could listen to more of it. I don't know how it "reads" but listening to it is a gripping experience.

What makes the novel so unusual is that its hero and narrator is a 15-year-old autistic English boy named Christopher. We are immediately taken into his strange world and his attempts to make sense of it. Christopher is a genius at math and reads far above his age level, but he hopeless at dealing with people and the ordinary routines of daily life. We learn this from his matter-of-fact narration of events in his life. He struggles with rages and terrors and copes by groaning, barking, screaming, hiding, or doing complex math problems in his head. He cannot adjust to the slightest variation in his daily routine, can eat only certain foods, and cannot stand contact with anything yellow or brown. He goes to a "special-needs" school, where he struggles to fit in with a mentally retarded student body.

The plot moves along on two basic lines. The first is a mystery, the gruesome "murder" of a neighbor's dog by means of a garden fork. Christopher is the first to discover the impaled dog, is initially blamed for its death, and resolves to solve the mystery by applying mathematical reasoning and the techniques of his hero Sherlock Holmes. The other plot covers a series of events in Christopher's life that reveal to the reader--although not to Christopher--just how much his condition has shattered his parents' lives and their marriage.

The book stays in character throughout. Everything we learn, we learn through Christopher and his imperfect understanding of the world around him. We are told only what Christopher sees and thinks, but gradually the truth of what is going on becomes blindingly obvious. The suspense sometimes becomes almost unbearable, as we watch Christopher blunder obliviously along and we wince at what is about to happen.

For all that, it's an engaging story, not as dark as I may have made it sound here. There are many amusing moments, and the book ends on,if not a happy note, at least a hopeful one.