Thursday, October 18, 2007

Mark Haddon on Timetables and France

Christopher Boone, the fifteen year old narrator in Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident, has these things to say about timetables:

“When I used to play with my train set I made a train timetable because I like timetables. And I like timetables because I like to know when everything is going to happen.”

“And this is why I like timetables because they make sure you don’t get lost in time.”

“And at the weekend I made up my own timetable and I write it down on a piece of cardboard and I put it up on the wall… And that is one of the other reasons why I don’t like France because when people are on holiday they don’t have a timetable and I had to get Mother and Father to tell me every morning exactly what we were going to do that day to make me feel better.”

Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (London: Vintage, 2004), 192, 195, 193.

Image: Train timetable.