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As the story opens, Christopher is 15, lives with his father and believes his mother to be dead. He suffers from a form of autism that makes interacting with the outside world a nightmare for him, and so he enjoys walks around the neighborhood late at night when he is unlikely to encounter anyone. One night, at exactly seven minutes after midnight, Christopher discovers the body of his neighbor's dog run through with a garden fork. He's understandably troubled by the dog's death and proceeds to try to get to the bottom of it using Sherlock Holmes as his model for detection. This book is written entirely from Christopher's point of view and provides a remarkable window into the world of autism. Because numbers are predictable, Christopher feels far more at home in a world configured mathematically than the one most of us inhabit that is filled with intangible emotions. Consequently, he focuses his attention on diagrams and equations as ways of elucidating the search for the dog's murderer. Other unusual aspects of his life are illustrated entirely without judgment or didacticism, allowing us to experience the curious constructions of Christopher's consciousness. For example, the chapters all begin with prime numbers because Christopher likes prime numbers, and we come to learn the exact omens that portend Good Days vs. Very Good Days. The narrative explores brilliantly his difficulty in identifying his emotions and the terror he experiences as he pushes himself into the larger world in search of clues to the dog's murder. The courage of this young man in his pursuit of the painful truth is nothing short of astonishing. It is impossible to describe effectively the originality of this story. Go out and find a copy right now. It won't take you long to read and I promise you will be moved in ways you never expected to be moved by a novel. Mark Haddon is a truly gifted and compassionate writer who never once sinks to the maudlin as he unfolds an unforgettable story of a family struggling to find its way through almost impossible challenges.
Reviewed by Carroll Johnson, January 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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