Author – Mark Haddon
Publisher – Vintage
Release Date – (Reprint Edition) 31st March 2004
Meet Christopher John Francis Boone, 15 years old and has high functioning autism.
He lives in Wiltshire, England with his father Ed.
He doesn’t like loud noises, crowded places, and the colours yellow and brown, as these colours mean that he is going to have a bad day.
At 7 minutes past midnight, Christopher finds Mrs Sears’s dog, Wellington, dead in her front garden. He was lay on his side with a garden fork sticking out of him.
Everyone suspected that Christopher had killed Wellington, but he loves animals and would never hurt them.
He decided that he was going to become a detective, like Sherlock Holmes, and find out who really killed Wellington. He needed somewhere to write down all of his information, so he wrote this book.
His dad wasn’t very happy that his son was snooping into his neighbour’s lives and told him to stop. Christopher decided to ignore him as he really needed to know who killed Wellington.
He asked his elderly neighbour, Mrs Alexander, if she knew who killed Wellington, but she didn’t know. She did, however, inform him that his mum had been having an affair with Mr Sears.
Christopher’s dad was furious when he found out that he was still investigating and demanded that he stopped interfering right away and threw away his book.
Christopher wanted his book back so he searched his dads bedroom looking for it. Whilst searching he came across some letters that had been hidden away, addressed to him from his mum, who had died two years.
He read some of the letters, and discovered that they were dated after her death.
After speaking to his dad, his dad confessed the truth. Christopher decided he couldn’t trust his dad any more and ran away.
Find out who killed Wellington, what happened to his mum and how Christopher gets on in the world alone.
Review
With a child on the autistic spectrum, I could fully understand Christopher’s behaviour. Mark Haddon had clearly done his research into the condition. From not allowing his food to touch, to not understanding other peoples emotions – all perfect examples of how autism can affect a persons behaviour and actions.
The story is narrated from Christopher’s perspective, as this is the book that he wrote. Everything written in it must be true as he doesn’t know how to write fiction.
You get to be with him through all of his actions, including his melt downs in which he screams, sometimes making him sick.
I loved Christopher, his logical view of the world, and the inability to tell lies, along with the way in which he portrays the world. He is a lovable young man. He tells you exactly what he’s doing and why. I like a character who gets right to the point, rather that skirting around issues.
I wasn’t very keen on his dad though, as he was portrayed as someone who, although loved his son, is very stern and I got the feeling he didn’t understand his son very well.
The book is quite an emotional book from the readers point of view, although Christopher doesn’t understand emotions.
There are lots of funny moments, moments where you probably shouldn’t laugh, but the way they are told by Christopher, will have you laughing anyway.
What I found most remarkable about this book is that it gives you an insight as to what it is like to live with autism, not just from the person with the diagnosis, but how people have to learn to adapt to living with someone with the condition.
I first read this book years ago and then when my middle son was diagnosed, I re-read it and I found that it was far more helpful in understanding the condition than any reference book has ever been. For this reason I put this book into my top ten books.
One of the little side notes which I want to add is that I liked how the chapters were all prime numbers, something that Christopher loved.
I also had the pleasure of watching the adaptation on stage, just before Christmas. It was amazing and if you have loved the book I can guarantee you will love the stage version.
This book is featured in my Top Ten Books.
My rating:
Five stars
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