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Today I would like to talk about being an autist. In every chapter there are things Chris is talking about that seem strange. These things affect Chris' character and his bahaviour. Reading about such things you might think Christopher is a freak, but the truth is more serious - Christopehr suffers from Asperger's Disease, closely related to autism. Chris describes his characteristics when talking about himself, he even explains his behaviour to make it more understandable for the reader. So he doesn`t like when someone touches him or embrases, therefore he has a special greating motion, like he describes it here: "He (father) held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan. I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs touch each other. We do this because sometimes Father wants to give me a hug, but I do not like hugging people, so we do this instead, and it means that he loves me."Chris finds people confusing. He doesn't understand the expressions of their faces, he needs clear words. He doesn't understand metaphors, neither jokes. Chirs hates lies and he can't understand when people talk about things that aren't and can't be real. In general, this boy needs an exactly structured life with clear orders and instructions. He is afraid of new and unfamiliar things, so he only feels sure in accustomed surroundings. Another quirk of Chris is his regulation about whether a day might be a good or a bad day; a good day will be when he sees 4 red cars in a row, a bad day is defined by 4 yellow cars in a row. In general Christopher doesn't like the yellow colour, neither the brown one.Well, almost in every chapter you can read about what Chris likes and what he doesn't. It would take too much time to list all of the characteristics of Chris. But I found it important to name some of them in order to present you the world of Chris - a world of an autistic boy. To conclude today's posting I would like to mention a very interesting thing recently happened to me, i.e. exactly during that time when I was reading the book and realised what does it mean to be an autist. One day I worked at school as a substitute for a teacher and I taught a class where I got to know an autistic boy for the first time in my life. It was very hard, but as I had read in the novel how do autistic people behave, I knew how to act on my part. And I was really thankful having read about Christopher. This novel is a really instructive! I like it!
Well, some days have passed by since I wrote my last post. In the meantime I managed to finish reading the chosen book. I feel very enthusiastic about it! Of course, I won't prepone the pleasure to read more postings about it, and therefore I'm going to write on about some incidents (some curious, some less curious) and my feelings and opinions... Although I was disappointed about the dog's death, something pulled me to go on reading. Today I would like to describe some stylistic items concerning the novel.
The first thing I found interesting was the numbering of the chapters. The novel begins at chapter 2 and proceeds through 3, 5, 7, 11 and so on. I even had the idea it was numbered in the way of prime numbers; this fact was confirmed in the second chapter with the number "3" when Christopher introduces himself and says: "I know all the countries of the world ant their capital cities and every prime number up to 7.507." The second very interesting fact is the topical structure of the book. There is a continuous change between tha chapters: one chapter deals with the actual incident of the dog and the next one supplies information about the protagonist, who is the narrator. The reason lies in the author's aim to write a strory told through the eyes of an autistic boy, who accordingly tells what is going through his mind at the moment. Christopher decides to solve the dog's murder, an investigation that will lead him to discover the truth not only about the dog's death but also about his mother's sudden death two years earlier. The details of his investigation are recorded in the form of a novel. "A murder mystery novel", Chris tells the reader. But this is not a typical murder mystery. There are clues, suspects, an amateur sleuth and even a couple of red herrings, but the author continually subverts the genre and the novel format, playing with the reader's expectations as he shows them the world through Christophers's eyes. The third considerable item are the visual features of the book - the pages of the novel are filled with diagrams. maps, lists, footm´notes and illustrations, both relevant and irrelevant to the central story. I really like it! Well, I think that's enough about the exterior of the book. In the following postings you'll read more content-related statements...
The novel begins with its protagonist and narrator, a 15-year-old boy named Christopher, stumbling across the body of a neighbour's dog. The dog has been stabbed to death with a garden fork that was still sticking out of the animal...
A really cruel beginning which I didn't expect! By choosing the book I was attracted by the title which contains the word "dog". That was the main incentive for me, beacuse I am crazy about dogs. Sure, because of the heading I assumed a sad ending and some kind of an accident happened to the animal. But I was really shocked having read following lines directly on the first page:
"The dog was lying on the grass [...] Its eyes were closed. [...] But the dog was not running or asleep. 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."
What a detailed description! In my head appeared a very precise picture of the described situation. One thing became sure now - the dog wan't be a "second protagonist" or something like that, at least not in a vivid emergence. Although I felt a little bit disappointed about the "abrupt" death of my favourite animal, I felt very curiously about what will be happen now, when the character already announced in the title found its ending on the first page.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a relatively new novel written by the British writer Mark Haddon. The writer achieved a great success - this novel won several awards. It won 2003 the Whitbread Book of the Year and it was winner of Guardian children's Fiction Prize and Booktrust Teenage Fiction Award.
The Sunday Telegraph wrote: "Exceptional by any standards...both funny and deeply moving. When we look at the world through Christopher's eyes...we see it more clearly and understand overselves better. What more could you want from a book?"
And the weekly Observer wrote: "Gave me that rare, greedy feeling of: this is so good I want to read it all at once but I mustn't or it will be over soon."
Well, these commentaries are quite to the point! I would call the novel a great literary work and I'd like to recommend it highly to everybody!
