Haddon, of course, is the author of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time', which was so brilliant and unique. With this book, one realizes just how good Haddon is at expressing the internal machinations of the human mind. He represents the perspectives of his delineated cast of characters vividly and faithfully, and the collective brush with insanity that they all experience -- especially the central character, of course -- is so literary and at the same time so real that the reader feels quite caught up in all the bother, so to speak. This is not to say that one feels insane -- there have been other books where I have felt in as worse a shape as the characters, but this has a lighter touch -- but when one surfaces out of this book, from time to time, there is no choice but to be impressed with the language, with the characterization, and with the sheer power of emotion that pervades it.

I don't know if it is "as good" as his previous work -- we have a little bit of apples and oranges here, in many senses -- but I will definitely be reading more of Mark Haddon.

Loved this book! The characters are hilarious. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. ( )

funny, interesting, still prefer his first and waiting for his next

Enormously cheering. ( )

As a certain favorite cat of mine once said, “We’re all mad here.” I would challenge anyone to read 15-20 pages of Mark Haddon’s A Spot of Bother without coming to the same conclusion. Haddon’s second foray into the world of the novel explores the inner workings of one George Hall and his family. With a cheating wife, a daughter getting married (no she’s not… yes she is… maybe), and a gay son going through a bit of an identity crisis, poor George has enough to deal with. But fact is, George is retired, has a lot of time on his hands, and he’s just discovered a lesion on his hip that the doctor might say is eczyma but he just knows it’s cancer, damn it… and he slowly begins to lose his mind.

But is George the only one losing his mind? Life is crazy, but for the Hall family life throws more curveballs than can be found in an ordinary game of baseball, and the way these characters adjust, regroup, and deal with their problems turns out to be a fascinating study of the human psyche. In short, Haddon has done it again. He’s given the reader a character with more mental problems than you can shake a stick at (even if you were on all fours, mooing like a cow… you read me correctly), and still manages to make us wonder if George isn’t the sanest member of the family after all.

While a bit confusing, the relationships and characteristics of the people Haddon has thrown into this mad, mad world are intricate and articulated with amazing talent. I worried, hoped, and celebrated with them just as if they were members of my own family. That’s what makes a book wonderful. The story itself has quite a few different plotlines, and the constant switching back and forth between characters in order to give each plot the attention it deserved was a bit over the top for my taste, but because the story was just so good, so real, it works much better than other books I have read in the same vein.

I firmly believe Haddon has created a following with this book. No longer can some critics claim that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was a one hit wonder, of sorts. A Spot of Bother cements him in my mind as a writer with a great talent for exploring the inner madness of us all. The fact that he does so without cheapening the experience is only the icing on the proverbial cake.

The original publication of this review can be seen on my blog: Living Between the Pages. ( )