Fatherhood and Nurturing

From Menletter August 2008

By Tim Baehr

Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon (New York: Vintage Books, 2004.)

Mark Haddon's first book is about Christopher John Francis Boone, an autistic 15-year-old and the narrator of the story. Christopher's story is about his attempts to solve a neighborhood crime - the brutal killing of a dog in the front yard of a house across the street from his house.

Christopher's autism gives him certain advantages and disadvantages in his detective work. He is what most people who work with autistic children would call high-functioning. He displays little emotion other than fear and, by his admission, happy, sad, cross, and concentrating. Yet he has begun to study other people and can sometimes suss out, through keen observation, their emotions and motives. His frankness and obtuseness can get him into trouble, and it can also get him answers.

Haddon, who has worked with autistic individuals, paints a convincing picture of an intelligent, autistic boy without resorting to over-cleverness or using the autism as a deus ex machina to solve the mystery. We follow Christopher through the neighborhood and on a scary solo trip to London (he lives in an exurb about 100 miles away), listening in on his conversations and on his internal dialog. We discover everything and everyone through his autistic eyes, ears, and interpretations (often sharply perceptive).

One person we meet is Christopher's father, Ed. Ed is a plumber, raising Christopher by himself. Christopher gives Ed no end of trouble - slugging a policeman investigating the dead dog, pestering the neighbors as he tries to gather evidence, and running away to London. The boy gives deadpan reports of Ed's consternation and anger, and also of Ed's loving commitment to his son.

Two people in the book "get" Christopher - Siobhan, the counselor at his special school, and his father. Ed has learned how to accommodate Christopher's needs for consistency and regular routines; his occasional emotional shut-downs; his weird food preferences; his fears of crowds and of being touched. When Christopher becomes sick and throws up on Ed's bed, Ed talks him carefully through all the steps he's going to take to get Christopher's clothes off, the bed stripped, and Christopher into the tub.

Ed's gentleness with Christopher is real and unforced. Even when he is in a rage over something Christopher has done, he never raises a hand against him. When Ed is wrong about something, he apologizes, convincingly. This is not a man who has merely memorized how one is to treat an autistic (or any) child. Christopher has, perhaps, brought out a nurturing side of his father that, in its consistency and faithfulness, could not be brought about rationally.

Curious Incident is enjoyable as a murder mystery, character study of autism, and just a well-paced, gripping story. That's recommendation enough, I guess. But if you read it, watch Ed (through Christopher's eyes) carefully. Fatherhood and nurturing come together convincingly, and movingly.