Choice Book Report for Quarter 2

The book I read, Agatha Christie’s Curtain, tells the tale of the detective Hercule Poirot’s final case and of his death. Hercule Poirot is a little Belgian detective. Now aged, he is confined to his wheelchair and is told his heart may go out at any time. Yet he still does what he does best - sitting and thinking. Poirot is somehow confident that there will be a murder at Styles, and he is right. He knows who the murderer is, but with his secretive nature, he will not tell his good friend Captain Hastings. Poirot is also kind of vain or conceited. Even with his age, his appearance and his mustache are both still perfect. He is also intelligent. His detective techniques work perfectly. In Curtain, Poirot discovers five murders. In all of them, it has been very clear who the murderer was. In each case the person confessed. But Poirot knows that another person was responsible. He calls this person X. In each case X was there but was not suspected. Poirot knows who X is.

Hastings and Poirot could both be called the main character of the story. Poirot does the most in the story, being the detective, but the story is from Hastings’s point of view. 

Captain Hastings is Poirot’s younger friend. He has several children, one of which, Judith, is also at Styles. He is often like Poirot’s opposite. While Poirot uses his psychology to solve cases, Hastings would rather look for clues. This does not work out so well for him. Hastings is not confident like Poirot is. He almost never knows who the murderer is, or he has some totally wrong suspicion. He is protective of Judith. On page 144 he says, “But now, Poirot, what am I to do about this - Judith and Allerton, I mean? It’s got to be stopped somehow. What do you think I’d better do?” To which the much more relaxed Poirot says, “Do nothing.” Poirot and Captain Hastings are very different characters.                    

The point of view in this story was first person. The story was told from Hercule Poirot’s friend Hastings’s point of view. This point of view was chosen because Hastings is not as smart as Poirot. He does not think the same way as Poirot does. Hastings does not know who the murderer is, otherwise he has an incorrect idea that only confuses the reader. If Poirot told the story, the reader would know who did it. The reader would also understand why Poirot thought certain things were important or clues. If Poirot told this story, it would not qualify as a mystery. With Hastings telling the story, the reader can make a guess as to who it is. Poirot once said that when Hastings wrote the pages were full of “I”s. He is right. Hastings tells what he thinks and this makes the story a lot different. Poirot would not write in the same way. He would write about what other people did and what they thought. This is because Poirot is a more psychological person that Hastings. 

If Hastings hadn’t told this story it would have been very different. One part that would have been especially different was the part where Hastings felt that he had to take care of Judith. If he had not narrated that part the reader would not have understood why Hastings felt he had to watch out for her. After that part, Hastings was angry at Allerton and made up his mind to kill him. I would not have understood his instinct had I not been reading his thoughts about this. (Hastings never did kill Allerton. Poirot realized what he was planning.) I thought this was a good book but I think a lot of people wouldn’t agree.