The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
read: 2004
Guardian 1000 Novels

This was the last book my grandmother ever read.  In her later years, she lived with my parents for a time.  I was also living with my parents and got to see her daily routine: every day, she would get up, have breakfast, move to the couch (in the room we to this day call the new room, even though it is 20 years old now), watch her game shows and soap operas, read the paper, do the cryptoquote and the crossword, eat dinner, watch more TV, and go to bed.  It was remarkable how little she would deviate from this agenda.  Day after day, it was the Boston Herald, lunch, Family Feud, Days of Our Lives, dinner, the Red Sox, and bed.  But one day, I had left a copy of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time in the living room.  She saw it on her way to the "new room," sat in a sofa in the living room, and read the book in one sitting.

I never had a real conversation with her about the book; she said it was interesting, but I don't think she really formed too strong an opinion on the novel.  I don't even think she knew why she read it, and for all the time we lived together she never expressed an interest in reading anything other than her daily newspaper.

Coincidentally, I read the book in one sitting also.  I was in London Heathrow airport, and had all day to kill before my afternoon flight.  As soon as the bookstore in the airport opened I went in and bought Curious Incident, having selected it based on the criteria of "looks interesting based on the back of the book."  I sat down and decided to try to read it before boarding the plane.  I didn't quite succeed, but I finished the book before the pilot switched off the seatbelt sign.

I liked the book, or I should say that I remember liking the book.  Now when I think of Curious Incident, I think about it being the last book my grandmother ever read.