Mark Haddon

"A Spot Of Bother" is a humane, humorous look a man slowly unravelling in retirement and the reaction of his family to his slide into mental illness. It gets us inside the heads of an older couple and their adult children, showing, with a mix of wit, acute social observation and admirable empathy, how they try to cope with lives that are not the ones that they expected to live but are the only ones they have.

As the title suggests, this is a very polite, very English view of dealing with show more personal crises by trying to pretend that they're not happening, or, if they are, then convincing yourself that they can be fixed by carrying on as normal for as long as possible.

George Hall has always been a quiet, responsible man. Now he is slowly, quietly, and with as little inconvenience to others as he can manage, being overwhelmed by mental illness. He suffers from constant anxiety and panic attacks that bring him to his knees. He has convinced himself that what his doctor diagnoses as eczema is really a fatal form of cancer.

He is aware that this is probably not a rational conclusion but it's not a belief he can free himself from. Nor can he share that belief with others, especially with the way things are with his family. So he continues alone until he does something that no one can ignore. Although this sounds like a source of humour and is handled lightly at times, the thing that came through most strongly to me was how George's illness isolated him, leaving him deeply afraid, quietly desperate and totally unable to ask for help. This felt very real to me.

Jean, George's wife of many years is portrayed honestly and non-judgementally. Given her frustration at having George under her feet all the time after decades of having to live her life mostly in his absence and her affair with an ex-colleague of George's, she could have been a stock comedy figure. Instead, we see the world through her eyes understand that her life and her loves aren't that simple.

George and Jean are put under stress by their children who are going through dramas of their own and who both seem to be attracted to men who are not from either the class of the culture that their parents would have chosen.

Their divorced with one child daughter, Katie, announces her intention to marry the not-quiet-smart-enough-or-well-read-enough Ray. He's very nice of course and so good with Katie's son. He's solid, dependable chap, but is he really someone their daughter should marry?

Their gay but only recently come out of the closet son, Jamie has a relationship with a very working-class young man that the family has never met. The upcoming wedding stresses Jamie's relationship and makes him question the comfortable but perhaps overly-safe life he's built for himself.

What I enjoyed most about this book was the skilled storytelling. The chapters are short. Each one immerses the reader in the mind of a member of the family. The plot is carefully crafted to get the most humour and tension from the interlocking characters while the voices of the characters keep the story real, reflecting the ambiguities and confusions and complex emotions of people who are dealing with what life is dishing out to them.

I recommend listening to the audiobook version of "A Spot Of Bother". It's narrated with skill and precision by Alex Jennings. show less

Angela, a woman who feels put upon by having to care for her dying mother, is married to Dominic, who is a bit of a slacker job-wise. Their three children are in various stages of growing-up; daughter Daisy is of particular concern because she's recently found Jesus. Richard, an slightly rigid overachiever, is married to Louisa, a woman with a past. Louisa's daughter Melissa is a bit of a handful. Angela and Richard are siblings who are semi-estranged. When their mother passes away, Richard show more gets the brilliant idea to invite Angela and her family on a week's holiday in the country. When the two families get together is becomes apparent how estranged everybody is from each other - even within the same family unit.

Overall, these people are not the group you'd choose to spend your vacation with. They are prickly and flawed. They aren't even particularly nice. But they are interesting, and do mostly learn a bit about each other and themselves during their week together. If you want a nice happy family story, The Red House isn't for you. But if you like and understand various forms of dysfunction in your family dynamics, I'd recommend this book. show less

I chose The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time because the title is a direct quote from Sherlock Holmes in the first story of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. The "curious incident" in this case is witnessed by fifteen-year-old Christopher, who finds his neighbour's dog murdered one night. This is the most unusual murder mystery I have ever read, as not only is the murder victim a dog, but the detective is a boy who appears to have Asperger's syndrome (although this is never show more explicitly stated).

Christopher loves routines, maths and lists. He takes everything at face value and doesn't really understand the concept of joking, sarcasm or lying. He also struggles to understand the complexity of other people's emotions - to him things are good (prime numbers, programmes about space and Sherlock Holmes mysteries) or bad (yellow or brown things and being touched). In essence, the book is less a detective story than a character study of a complex boy who sees the world very differently from his readers.

The real genius of this book is that it is written from the perspective of a child on the autistic spectrum. As far as I know, this has never been done before, but Mark Haddon manages to draw an incredibly plausible picture of what goes on in Christopher's mind. According to several interviews with him he has never worked with autistic children, and in fact did not particularly intend the label of Asperger's to be attached to Christopher. Speaking as someone who has worked with many children with similar conditions I find this extraordinary. Christopher's behaviours ring absolutely true to me. His descriptions of how he feels when his routines are broken, when someone gets too close to him or when he doesn't understand the world around him are incredibly intense and make me feel I understand these children far more than I did before I read the book.

There have been plenty of novels written about children with autistic spectrum disorders, usually from the perspective of the parents or of an impartial narrator. Had this book been written from one of these perspectives I feel it would have lost a huge part of what makes it so special. I felt almost privileged to be allowed to inhabit Christopher's mind for a little while. He reminded me how important it is to be able to take pleasure in the simple things in life. He likes the quiet. He loves things that form a pattern and make sense. He likes to lie on his back on the grass, look up at the stars, and pretend that he is the only person in the world.

In many ways Curious is an uplifting and beautiful book. It's also so, so sad. Christopher is looked after by his father, and through Christopher's words it becomes obvious that, although he loves him and is fiercely protective of him, his father is also intensely frustrated by his son. For me the saddest part of the book is when Christopher becomes terrified that his Dad is going to hurt him. He can't understand the concept of love, and so he doesn't understand how much his Dad loves him.

I really, really can't begin to describe how wonderful this book is. I love all the tiny details that add to its richness (Christopher names all his chapters after prime numbers and adds an appendix which shows his working of a complicated maths problem - just because). But mostly I love the way Haddon was able to help me inhabit the mind of such a fascinating and complex character. This book is an incredible achievement. Please read it. show less

A Mark Haddon novice, I really enjoyed this novel and ended up reading it in one sitting.
Christopher is a 15-year-old boy who is socially awkward but highly intelligent, and the story is told entirely from his perspective. When Wellington, the neighbour’s poodle, is found murdered, Christopher decides to play detective—only to uncover far more than he ever expected.
This is a delightful, moving, and inventive read, offering thoughtful insight into the mind of a young person on the autism show more spectrum. Both funny, heartbreaking and it's leaving the reader with a deeper awareness of how many different ways there are to experience reality. show less