Christopher is a mathematical genius, socially inept 15 year old boy who takes in everything he sees and hears and calls the rest of us lazy for not doing so. One of my favorite descriptions of what it is like inside of his head was the piece beginning on page 141 in my copy about how regular people may see a countryside: some cows, flowers in the field, a few clouds in a sunny sky, a village in the distance, a fence at the edge... and they may not notice much else because they are thinking things like, "It's beautiful here," or "Did I leave the gas on?" (Which, of course, reminded me of this bit in one of my favorite comedian's stand up routines. Excuse the language)
But Christopher sees much more. He sees exactly what is there: 19 cows in the field: 15 black and white, 4 brown and white, mostly facing uphill. The village in the distance has 31 visible houses and the church has a square tower. There is a plastic shopping bag, a long piece of orange string, and a squashed Coca-Cola can with a snail on it. Three different types of grass and two different types of flowers. Etc., etc., etc. It is overwhelming enough to imagine taking all of that in, but he also remembers everything he sees and hears. At several points in this novel, he names a date and time and says exactly what his mother or his (teacher? counselor? therapist?) Siobhan were saying to him, wearing, doing. It's amazing. But for all of his remembering, he cannot process verbal cues, meanings behind facial expressions, body language, or slang.
In this way, I noticed that all, or almost all dialogue is in a she said/he manner. If someone declares, whispers, utters, lisps, whines, exclaims, or scoffs, the emotion is lost on Christopher. Reading expressions and feelings are out of his capacity of knowing. This is why he likes everything to be very precise. It bothers him, for instance, that his name means carrying Christ from St. Christopher and that his mother thought it was a nice name with a story behind it about being kind and helpful. Christopher, however, just wants his name to mean him. Now, I know that my name is not common, but I genuinely feel that it means me and I mean it. What do you think about your name? Do you feel like Christopher or like me on this issue?
As an honest-to-a-fault person, I found Christopher's inability to tell lies quite compelling. He sees lies as inventing something that happened that did not actually happen and the possibilities are endless. If someone asked me what I did last night, for instance, I would tell them that I attended an essential oils webinar and that would be the truth. I could also lie by saying that I had tea with Steve Martin in a rowboat filled with penguins on the moon. Or that I sat in my car and counted to 56,987. Or that I bought a pair of pants with alligators on them. Endless possibilities. It's not that I'm not creative, (which Christopher is not) it is just that I find honesty to be the best policy.
SPOILER ALERT: I thought it was pretty obvious from the get-go that Christopher's father killed Wellington. His need for Christopher to drop the topic and his remorseful tears when he is found late at night crying were red flags for me. And, yes, I have read this book before, but it was 5 1/2 years ago, in one sitting.. and I didn't remember much about it apart from the interesting narration. Did anyone else see it coming? I think it's pretty safe to say that we all knew it before Christopher did.
I also found it interesting that some of the things that make me super uncomfortable are the things he really enjoyed. When he was told that his mother was in the hospital, he wanted to visit because he liked uniforms and machines. I hate visiting hospitals. It's always awkward and uncomfortable and upsetting.
But one thing that I thought was spot-on in his thinking was how we let things out of our control dictate what kind of day we will have. As I read about his system of counting car colors as they appeared in a sequence (4 red in a row, 4 yellow in a row, etc.), I thought it was a silly way to decide if he'd be in a good mood or to not speak to anyone. Extreme, right? But then he explained that some people (like me) work in an office building where it does not actually matter if it is raining or sunny... but they feel happy when it is sunny and sad when it is rainy. And you know what? Sometimes that is what determines my mood. How silly of me!
To an extent, I also understand that having things in order can make one feel safe or at least feel better. I feel completely out of sorts when my house is a mess. I may not love cleaning, but I feel better when everything is clean and tidy.
I did not enjoy this book the second time through as much as I enjoyed it the first time. Christopher actually got on my nerves quite a bit this time. I know that in his condition, he was pretty much helpless unless all conditions around him were just so, but I did feel for his parents frustrations and thought about how difficult it would be to work with this type of relationship on a daily basis.
Here are a few of my short observations:
1. When Christopher gets to know someone, he actually just gets to know about them. He asks things like what kind of car they drive and what is their favorite color and what they know about the Apollo space missions. This has nothing to do with knowing someone. I can know those things about my favorite actor, but it doesn't mean I know him.
2. People who like dogs can't be all bad in his mind. I like this. It reminds me of Captain James Hook in our previous read Peter Pan, who loved flowers and music. No one is all bad.
3. To Christopher, there are certain reasons that things happen and anything outside of those reasons is baffling and cannot be. This shows when he talks about not knowing why Mr. and Mrs. Shears divorced. The reasons he lists for divorce are: "because one of you has done sex with somebody else or because you are having arguments and you hate each other and you don't want to live in the same house anymore and have children." There are no other explanations in his mind.
4. Page 69 talks about how alien spaceships probably would not look like the flying saucers we imagine. It's weird because I had been thinking something similar the day before I read this page. Why do we assume aliens would have human-like forms rather than that of pigs or snails or fish or ferns or cupcakes? Maybe squids are the real aliens.
5. It makes sense to me that Christopher does not believe in God the most when he SPOILER ALERT learns about his mother's affair and is not upset by it. It is in the past, so it no longer exists to his mind. God cannot be seen, heard, tasted, smelled, or felt, so he does not believe in him. It's sad to me, but I guess I get it.
6. I specifically thought of you, Jenni Button, when he found a letter from his mother saying she had a new job and mentioned the shopping center in Birmingham--The Bullring! I miss England adventures with you!
7. SPOILER ALERT Even though I had previously read this novel, I completely forgot that Christopher's mother hadn't died and his dad lied about that. That sucks. I got really mad at both parents at that part. Father should never have said that she died. Mother should not have left her son with special needs with no explanation. It just all around sucks. I think this family needs serious counseling.
8. It also sucks that, while Father did some pretty terrible things (SPOILER ALERT: saying Mother was dead, killing Wellington), he really does love his son so much and loses his trust when he comes clean. In Christopher's mind, if Father can kill Wellington and tell lies, he may very well kill him, too.
9. Lastly, I'm sad that Christopher's "good dream" consists of pretty much everyone in the world dying and him being free to do as he pleases and not have to see anyone. I have days when I just want to be by myself, but I also get lonely and crave human interaction. Kyle and I are kind of homebodies who don't really get out very much. Some of that is because we know so few people here in SC (still), but I cherish times when we do get out and socialize once in a while.
All in all, I think I'd give this book five out of ten stars. It's interesting, but I don't find it to be super entertaining. It's worth the read, but not something I want to read over and over again. How would you rate it? What were your thoughts?
2 comments:
I read this book for the first time about eight years ago and, my capacity for remembering being what it is (lame), I only remembered the perspective. I was completely blindsided by the shockers in this story: Dad killing Wellington and Mom being alive. I was thoroughly entertained and amazed by Christopher's abilities as well as his disabilities. Did it disturb anyone else that the kid is carrying a knife and he has no self-control? One observation that I had made me wonder just how accurate Christopher's observations really were. On page 78 in my copy he is talking about the "pictures" in other people's heads. He is talvking about people's abilities to imagine themselves in different scenerios. He states that "the pictures in my head are all pictures of things which really happened". Then in the very next section, he describes himself imagining that he is in a "spherical metal submersible" all alone. I think that, because he is so meticulous and honest, I tended to believe everything he said up until this point. But, I think it illustrates how we all think certain things about ourselves, often erroneously. I "put my guard up" after this section and started watching for inconsistencies.
As for my name, I never had a problem with it until I started meeting others with the same name (kindergarten) and, when I found out that it was the number one girls name for the year I was born, it did make me feel less "special". O L. I'm glad you like YOUR name!
I think that it would be really interesting to "play" Christopher for even an hour and try to write about your life from his perspective. I'm going to do that. I also think that this book may influence me to try to be more observant and less "lazy".
I too found myself really angry at both his parents. I certainly understand their frustration but, come on, you don't abandon your child! And I do question just what Dad is capable of too. He told a terrible lie and he killed Wellington! This guy needs to get a grip! I feel hopelss for Christopher. Doesn't seem like he has any real options to me. I've got to give Mark Haddon an A for effort. He did a great job portraying Christopher and giving the world a little insight into autism.
Odd as it sounds, I didn't even stop to think about how upsetting it was that Christopher had a knife. Sure, everyone has the right to protect himself, but you're right, he doesn't have self control. It was disturbing when he would think about stabbing people in the train station.
That sounds like a great writing exercise! I may try it out, too.
I mostly feel sorry for Christopher's father more than worried about him. He son needs attention all the time and he basically has to do everything for him (though Christopher is highly functioning, obviously... he would probably not do well to do his own grocery shopping or live completely on his own) and put up with and love him in spite of all of his quirks and idiosyncrasies and he must do so unsupported by his wife who left him or the "friend" he thought he had in Mrs. Shears. He really doesn't have an outlet at all. He certainly does need to get a grip! Some kind of support group and hobby would do him a world of good.
I'm glad you enjoyed the read and got something from it. I had completely forgotten some of the shockers, too. Weird for me since I remember everything!
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