"This will not be a funny book," says Christopher. "I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them." But it turns out to be a funny book, as well as a sad one. Christopher Boone is 15, and knows "all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,507". Swindon, England is where he lives with his father and pet rat, Toby. He hates all things yellow and brown, he believes that he would make a good astronaut and has never been further than the end of the road on his own until his discovery of the late Wellington (his neighbour's dog), which turns him into an amateur detective. Christopher is a young Autistic boy, and Mark Haddon's study of the condition is realised, but this is not simply a novel about disability.
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Christopher sees everything, remembers everything, but cannot prioritise. On the day he is told his mother is dead, he records his Scrabble score, and notes that supper was spaghetti with tomato sauce. He can cope with facts, with concrete detail while emotions confuse and alarm him. In all it’s literary glory, there are still areas in the book that did give me mixed emotions. Throughout the novel Christopher is abandoned, deceived, abused and insulted. This is often done by the authority figures in his life (including his father). Christopher has no apparent emotional or physical reaction to abuse or insults, mainly because he can not process these in a quick enough manner. This bothers me because it suggests that abuse and insults do not harm autistic people, although I am sure they do. At the same time it does create more of a plot line that makes sense to the reader. This reassures me of the book's
Christopher sees everything, remembers everything, but cannot prioritise. On the day he is told his mother is dead, he records his Scrabble score, and notes that supper was spaghetti with tomato sauce. He can cope with facts, with concrete detail while emotions confuse and alarm him. In all it’s literary glory, there are still areas in the book that did give me mixed emotions. Throughout the novel Christopher is abandoned, deceived, abused and insulted. This is often done by the authority figures in his life (including his father). Christopher has no apparent emotional or physical reaction to abuse or insults, mainly because he can not process these in a quick enough manner. This bothers me because it suggests that abuse and insults do not harm autistic people, although I am sure they do. At the same time it does create more of a plot line that makes sense to the reader. This reassures me of the book's