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Questions provided by the facilitator, at the discussion of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, see earlier post. Anyone who has read the book have thoughts?  I'll get to them. I promise. I don't lie in my world, well not too often. You can trust me. Really.

1.  Given Christopher's aversion to being touched, can he experience his parents' love for him, or can he only understand it as a fact, because they tell him they love him?  Is there any evidence in the novel that he experiences a sense of attachment to other people?

2.  Does the novel's intensive look at Christopher's fascinating and often profound mental life suggest that in certain ways, the pity that well-meaning, "normal" people might feel for him is misdirected?  Give his gifts, does his future look promising?  In other words, is Christopher to be pitied and protected or pushed and empowered?

3.  Think about what Christopher says about metaphores and lies and their relationship to novels.  Why is lying such an alien concept to him?  In his antipathy to lies, Christopher decides not to write a novel, but a book in which "everything I have written is true" (20).  Why do "normal" human beings in the novel, like Christopher's parents, find lies so indispensible?  Why is the idea of truth so central to Christopher's narration and his world?

4.  In his review of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Jay McInerney suggests that at the novel's end "the gulf between Christopher and his parents, between Christopher and the rest of us, remains immense and mysterious.  And that gulf is ultimately the source of this novel's haunting impact.  Christopher Boone is an unsolved mystery." (The NY Times Book Review, 6/15/03, 5).  Is this an accurate assessment?  If so, why?

5.  Looking at the criteria, we established at the beginning of the evening, evaluate if/how The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time meets the definition of strong, well executed literary fiction.