“He was asking too many questions and he was asking them too quickly. They were stacking up in my head like loaves in the bread factory where uncle Terry works. The factory is a bakery and he operates the slicing machines. And sometimes the machine isn’t working fast enough but the bread keeps coming and there is a blockage. I sometimes think of my mind as a machine, but not always as a bread-slicing machine. It makes it easier to explain to other people what is going on inside it.“
Christopher is a 15-year-old child, suffering from Autism. He lives with his father and goes to a special school. His mother died of a heart attack. Christopher can recall how his parents used to fight because he is ‘different’. He hates the colors yellow and brown. He hates metaphors. He hates to be in crowded places. His school, and a teacher named Siobhan, helps him learn arts, math and Stranger Danger. He informs us that it’s a special school but it annoys him when people call his school a “special school” and that all the students there have “learning difficulties”. He observes that all of us have special needs and all of us have learning difficulties. Learning French or Relativity is difficult. His father has special needs like using artificial sweeteners to help him stay slim.
Chris has a photographic memory and can make the map of Swindon or London in his mind quickly. He loves studying stars, noticing people and their expressions and plans to sit for his Math A level exam. He can accurately recall the different patterns the cows, standing in a field, had because all he has to do is rewind, fast forward and pause!
Interestingly, the title of the book does not have much to do with the plot. Chris is detecting a case involving the murder of his neighbor’s dog, named Wellington. And no! I haven’t revealed the plot to you.
What Chris discovers while investigating the case (and he does it Sherlock Holmes ishtyle!) is what makes the book so interesting. As the story unfolds, the reader will find himself amused and entertained. Who is Mr. And Mrs. Shears? Why does Chris’s father insist that he stay out of other people’s business? Why shouldn’t Chris investigate the case? Is his mother really dead?
The language is simple and the narrative arresting. The book is not only a good and a quick read on a nice Sunday afternoon. It also delves deep into Autism and the world of those suffering from it. When you have finished the book, you know what a child suffering from Autism feels within his mind and heart.
Mark Haddon has got inside the mind of a child suffering from Autism and brilliantly carved another unforgettable character!