The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Mark Haddon (Etats-Unis)

Lu dans le cadre de la quatrième édition du Challenge Livra'deux pour Pal'Addict plus communément appelé LDPA 4 organisé génialement par Galleanne et hébergé sur Livr@ddict.

Pour cette nouvelle édition, XL m'avait choisi:

- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time de Mark Haddon (en VO)

- Le Festin Nu de William Burroughs

- GATACA de Franck Thilliez

Pas simple de se décider mais j'ai finalement lu:

Ma lecture:

Ce roman est dans ma PAL depuis très longtemps, quelques années sans aucun doute. J'ai probablement déjà entamé cette lecture mais sans aller jusqu'au bout et au final je me demande bien pourquoi.

L'histoire est bien ficelée; le style clair, précis même en VO, même lorsque les propos sont plus scientifiques ou mathématiques.

Le découpage des chapitres ne doit même pas vous troubler; on commence au chapitre 2, ensuite 3, puis 5, 7, 11... soit les nombres premiers, évidemment...

Christopher, le narrateur, héros de cette histoire est autiste, victime du syndrome d'Asperger. Ce trouble provoque chez Christopher des phobies assez étranges (certaines couleurs, le contact avec d'autres personnes, il connait les nombres premiers jusque 7057, il fait des listes pour ne rien oublier...). Il est peu sociable, a des difficultés à comprendre l'étrange monde des adultes et se retrouve embarqué dans une pseudo-enquête policière.

Il va découvrir non seulement le meurtrier mais aussi certaines vérités sur sa famille, sur sa propre existence; ce qui fera éclater sa carapace d'indifférence liée à son handicap.

Mark Haddon au final réussit à faire passer un message joyeux (grâce à l'humour parfois involontaire de Christopher) de compréhension vis-à-vis de certaines différences et nous aide à regarder ce qui nous entoure de façon bien différente. Le succès de ce roman tient aussi au fait que l'auteur ne plaint jamais Christopher mais qu'il l'associe dans l'écriture grâce aux dessins, croquis, schémas qui font partie intégrante du roman.

Un très joli choix, un grand moment de lecture. Merci beaucoup à XL.

Le début:

2. It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs. Shears's house. Its eyes were closed. It looked as if it was running on its side, the way dogs run when they think they are chasing a cat in a dream. But the dog was not running or asleep. The dog was dead. There was a garden fork sticking out of the dog. The points of the fork must have gone all the way through the dog and into the ground because the fork had not fallen over. I decided that the dog was probably killed with the fork because I could not see any other wounds in the dog and I do not think you would stick a garden fork into a dog after it had died for some other reason, like cancer, for example, or a road accident. But I could not be certain about this.

Quatrième de couverture:

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order, and predictability shelter him from the messy wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.

Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher's mind.

And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon's choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotion. The effect is dazzling, making for a novel that is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing are a mind that perceives the world literally.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of the freshest debuts in years: a comedy, a heartbreaker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.

MARK HADDON is a writer and illustrator of numerous award-winning children's books and television screenplays. As a young man, Haddon worked with autistic individuals. He teaches creative writing for the Arvon Foundation and at Oxford University. He lives in Oxford, England.

Editions Vintage Books (2004) - 224 pages