Fri, 30 Jan 2009
Dog Murder and the Geek
Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the
dog in the night-time, Vintage
Let us start by saying that we're using the word
'geek' in rather an affectionate sort of way. The
outline of the story is this: a 15yo boy who has
Asperger's Syndrome discovers a murdered dog (the
pitchfork through his body was a clue) and decides to
find out whodunnit.
But wait, there's more! The story is told by the boy
from inside his world - likes rule-based systems such
as maths and physics, hates to be touched, doesn't
have a clue what people are about unless everything
is carefully explained and he doesn't get physical
clues such as people's expressions, at all. He is also
very keen on Prime Numbers, and that's how the
chapters are numbered. He also can't tell lies.
And so one gets a strikingly simple view of the
world, endearing even if one didn't get the suspicion
that this sort of reasoning - without fuzziness - is
how we came to be in so many fixes at once.
Admitting to almost unknowable complexity and making
rational decisions on that basis is the way forward:
certainly not binary-minded luddism - not if we care
to live in heated houses anyway.
But in the context of the story and the storyteller
this isn't likely to get under anyone's skin. Instead,
perhaps they'll let their hidden geek out to play. And,
to be fair, the boy shows he's alive to complexity
but the religious references are, one suspects, the
author's problem - in that assertions one way or
another are unprovable.
The mystery of the dog is cleared up half way
through but then we set off on an heartrending
adventure which we won't talk about except to say that
some people have more than their fair share of contact
with adults who suck.
Is it really just a Whitbread award winning children's
book? No, no, it's much more than that.
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pre Dec 04 reviews are here