i am sparticus: The Curious Author Of The Dog At Night

The Curious Author Of The Dog At Night

I have this theory. I think that the book "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" is not written by the ascribed author, Mark Haddon. This is not because I don't think Mark Haddon is capable of writing this book, but rather because I think someone else wrote it. More specifically I think that Nick Hornby (he of High Fidelity/About A Boy/Fever Pitch fame) wrote it (Warning, Spoilers).

Top Five Reasons Why I Believe Nick Hornby Wrote "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time"

1. It's written in the style and manner of Nick Hornby. It's in the first person (as is High Fidelity and Fever Pitch), it brings out the humour in the ordinariness of middle class life (as do all Nick Hornby's books), it's ultimately about relationships (as all Nick Hornby's book are, the High Fidelity film tagline got it right) and countless other smaller things
2. Nick Hornby has a son who is autistic (the protagonist (is that the right word?) is autistic in "The Curious Incident..."), and while his son is a lot younger than the kid in "The Curious Incident..." Nick Hornby has probably read up a lot about autism, and so knows what he is talking about.
3. The book's based in geographical areas that Nick Hornby knows about.
4. It seems awfully personal (Again, like all Nick Hornby's books). The parents' marriage broke down partially because of how hard it was to cope with an autistic child? Same with Nick Hornby.
5. The name Mark Haddon is not a million miles away from the name Nick Hornby.

My thinking on why he used a pen name is that as Nick Hornby cites having to cope with the difficulties of an autistic child as one of the reasons for his marriage break up, to write a book about a marriage break up primarily because of an autistic child would make everyone try and guess how much of the story was true. As the wife runs off with another man and the husband tells the child that his mum is dead, it's not really a story you want people holding up to your life and saying "I wonder if this is all really true and he did tell his son his mum was dead".

The only thing standing in the way of my theory is the fact that Mark Haddon is already an existing author. However, if Nick Hornby genuinely wanted to keep his identity a secret, then making up an author isn't going to work. People will get suspicious and want to meet them and so on. By asking an existing author if they can use their name, all those problems are solved.

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