Monday, June 7, 2010

June Holiday Reading

This is about a book I read during this June Holidays. The book is entitled " The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time "
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen years old and unfortunately, he has Asperger's Syndrome. He know a lot about maths and very little about human beings. In the book, Christopher took his A level Maths and got an A grade. What's more, he is only 15! He hates the colours yellow and brown and also being touched by someone else. In the early part of the story, he punched a policeman who grabbed his arm.
In the book, his neighbour, Mrs Shears, had a dog. One night, he wanted to go over and say hi to the dog as he loved dogs. Upon reaching the house, he saw a garden fork sticking out of the dog, and the dog was breathless. He decided to write a book on this murder case. He went around all his neighbour's houses and asked them if they knew of anything suspicious. His father scolded him for poking his nose into other people's business.
One day, his father spotted Christopher's book and read it from head to toe. After doing that, he kept it away in a shirt box. Desperate to get the book back, Christopher searched around the house one day. Finally, he found the shirt box inside his father's cupboard. Together with the book, he also found a bunch of letters. The letters were signed to him by his dead mother.
This was the second mystery in the book. The dates on the letters were way after his mother had passed away. On another day, he opened up the letters and read them. After reading them, he found out that his mother had never died and his father was lying to him all along. Christopher's mother had run away with Mr Shears as both of them could not get along with their spouse.
After learning about the truth, Christopher vomited and fainted in the bed. When his father came back, he saw all the letters around and immediately understood what had happened. When Christopher had awaken, he explained the whole thing in tears. He had no choice, he wanted to protect his son. His father also admitted that he was the one who had killed Wellington, the dog belonging to the neighbour.
Christopher went to bed straight but he did not sleep. He knew that his father had killed Wellington, and he was scared that he might have him killed too. He planned to escape the next morning. He went into the garden and spent the night there as he felt mush safer. The next morning, his father had come to the garden, but he was well hidden and his father drove of to find him.
He had no where to go, he knew he could not stay at home, nor could he stay with his teacher. He finally made up his mind to live with his mother. Christopher was on a difficult task, as he needed to travel all the way to London all by himself. After much difficulty, he found the train station and started his journey.
Apparently, his father made a police report and the police were looking for him. A policeman spotted him on the train and was planning to alight at the next stop. Christopher went to the toilet and when he came out, he hid in a shelf where commuters out their luggage on. He successfully arrived at London without the policeman in sight.
With the help of a map, he found his mother's house. No one was at home so he waited in the rain until he heard his mother and Mr Shears voices. He stayed in his mother's house for a few days before his father came knocking on the door. Christopher's mother had to settle something in his hometown so they made their way back, dropping by at his house to get some clothes.
The rented a small house somewhere else. A few days later after they reached, Christopher had to take his A level Maths exam. There were three parts to the exam and he went back for three days consecutively.
His father wanted to apologize to Christopher and bought him a golden retriever after the exams. His father wanted to spend time with his son everyday so that they will learn to trust each other more and get along better.
I have no particular favourite part in this story but i throughly enjoyed it. I recommend those who have not read this book to pick it up and read it now.

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