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A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
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A Spot of Bother (original 2006; edition 2006)

by Mark Haddon

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
5,7501841,747 (3.53)219
Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:George Hall is an unobtrusive man. A little distant, perhaps, a little cautious, not quite at ease with the emotional demands of fatherhood or of manly bonhomie. ??The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.? Some things in life can??t be ignored, however: his tempestuous daughter Katie??s deeply inappropriate boyfriend Ray, for instance, or the sudden appearance of a red circular rash on his hip.
At 57, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden and enjoying the freedom to be alone when he wants. But then he runs into a spot of bother. That red circular rash on his hip: George convinces himself it??s skin cancer. And the deeply inappropriate Ray? Katie announces he will become her second husband. The planning for these frowned-upon nuptials proves a great inconvenience to George??s wife, Jean, who is carrying on a late-life affair with her husband??s ex-colleague. The Halls do not approve of Ray, for vague reasons summed up by their son Jamie??s observation that Ray has ??strangler??s hands.? Jamie himself has his own problems ?? his tidy and pleasant life comes apart when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to Katie??s wedding. And Katie, a woman whose ferocious temper once led to the maiming of a carjacker, can??t decide if she loves Ray, or loves the wonderful way he has with her son Jacob.
Unnoticed in the uproar, George quietly begins to go mad. The way these damaged people fall apart ?? and come together ?? as a family is the true subject of Haddon??s hilarious and disturbing portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.
A Spot of Bother is Mark Haddon??s unforgettable follow-up to the internationally beloved bestseller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Once again, Haddon proves a master of a story at once hilarious, poignant, dark, and profoundly human. Here the madness ?? literally ?? of family life proves rich comic fodder for Haddon??s
… (more)
Member:newkilou
Title:A Spot of Bother
Authors:Mark Haddon
Info:Doubleday (2006), Hardcover, 354 pages
Collections:Your library
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Work Information

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon (2006)

  1. 20
    The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (fyrefly98)
  2. 20
    A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (SimoneA, sturlington)
    SimoneA: The writing style of Mark Haddon in this book reminds me very much of Nick Hornby.
  3. 20
    Morgan's Passing by Anne Tyler (sturlington)
  4. 10
    A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (ehines)
    ehines: Both fine comic writers with the ability to make us sympathize with the most ridiculous characters without at all reducing the ridiculous quotient.
  5. 00
    A Bit of a Do by David Nobbs (sanddancer)
  6. 00
    The Promise of Happiness by Justin Cartwright (bergs47)
  7. 00
    Starting Over by Tony Parsons (SimoneA)
    SimoneA: Both books tell the story of a middle aged man who has to get to terms with himself and his situation in a dry and funny way.
  8. 00
    What's Wrong with Dorfman? by John Blumenthal (sturlington)
    sturlington: Midlife crises, hypochondria
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» See also 219 mentions

English (169)  German (5)  Norwegian (3)  Catalan (2)  French (2)  Dutch (1)  Spanish (1)  Italian (1)  All languages (184)
Showing 1-5 of 169 (next | show all)
It's fast paced and might make a comedy series. The problem is, that amid the endless vomiting, trips to the toilet, funny comments....I think we're supposed to care about the characters...
It's the eve of Katie and Ray's wedding. She...doesnt know what she wants (is it just Ray's house, moneyt and fact he's a good father to her young son?) Ray's possibly the only likeable character- tho his determination to hold onto Katie means he starts to lose that accolade...
Meanwhile Katie's father, George, is sliding into some kind of crisis- convinced his eczema is cancer...and made much worse when he discovers his wife is having an affair with his friend...
Meanwhile Katie's brother is pining after his gay lover....
When you reach page 420 and are seriously considering ditching it rather than wade through 80 further pages...a bit of a turkey. ( )
  starbox | Apr 18, 2022 |
From the author of The Incident with the Dog in the Nighttime, this quietly rollicking (so English!) novel is well worth its occasional longeurs-- like your family is. It presses its readers performatively to just be a little more patient, a little more open-eyed, a little less judgmental, a little more inventive-- and even the spot of bother that is paranoid depression with big sharp teeth, dysfunctional family dynamics given wings by class consciousness, and the daily sorrow that nibbles the soul can be transformed. Not made to go away, but transformed. Humor helps. A lot. You'll like this, I think. It revolves around a wedding. I want to be Ray. ( )
  AnnKlefstad | Feb 4, 2022 |
It was OK, but I did find it over-long and a bit plodding. The plot provided some good comedy, however there was a lot of forced humour in it and this spoilt the writing for me. Apart from the young boy I didn't really find any of the characters that likeable. I did read the author's first book, and had high hopes for this one, but I was left disappointed. I gave it two stars because I liked the storyline, but found the writing a bit tedious and the characters a bit too one-dimensional. ( )
  Triduana | Jan 25, 2022 |
Finally, having finished this book, filled with drama of a middle classed British family. Dad has anxiety attack. Mom has an affair. Brother is gay. Sister is getting married. It all blended into a tumultuous dramatic BBC kinda movie 😂

Here's my full review:
http://www.sholee.net/2018/05/mpov-spot-of-bother.html ( )
  Sholee | Sep 9, 2021 |
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon (2006)
  arosoff | Jul 10, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 169 (next | show all)
“A Spot of Bother” isn’t nearly as audacious, and in other hands and other media, its plot elements wouldn’t amount to much, maybe a weepy nighttime soap or a lesser Steve Martin comedy.
But Haddon is too gifted and too ambitious to write a hacky second novel. In fact, he’s so wondrously articulate, so rigorous in thinking through his characters’ mind-sets, that “A Spot of Bother” serves as a fine example of why novels exist. Really, does any other art form do nuance so well, or the telling detail or the internal monologue?
added by sneuper | editNew York Times, David Kamp (Sep 17, 2006)
 
Just as he flawlessly mastered the voice of a boy with Asperger's in The Curious Incident, here Haddon has filled 390 pages with sharp and witty observations about family and daily life.
This a superb novel, and I was shocked when it didn't made the Man Booker longlist. There may be a perfectly obvious, simple reason for its omission. After reading it though, I can't think of an explanation that's good enough.
 
And that's what's so surprising about A Spot of Bother: how unsurprising it is. It's never less than pleasurable to read and there are good jokes and funny situations; it's just that it never tries to be much more than good jokes or funny situations.
It's not that this is a bad book - it isn't. It's amusing and brisk and charming. But readers could be forgiven for wanting - and expecting - more.
added by sneuper | editThe Guardian, Patrick Ness (Aug 26, 2006)
 

» Add other authors (14 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Haddon, Markprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Andersson, ThomasTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Keating, CharlesReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Leskinen, TerhiTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Vance, SimonNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Dedication
To My Continuity Girl
First words
It began when George was trying on a black suit in Allders the week before Bob Green's funeral.
Quotations
1. The human mind was not designed for sunbathing and light novels. Not on consecutive days at any rate. The human mind was designed for doing stuff, making spears, hunting antelope...

2. ...moths like flying hamsters...

3. ...graffiti only counted if it was spelt correctly

4. What they failed to teach you at school was that the whole business of being human just got messier and more complicated as you get older.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:George Hall is an unobtrusive man. A little distant, perhaps, a little cautious, not quite at ease with the emotional demands of fatherhood or of manly bonhomie. ??The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.? Some things in life can??t be ignored, however: his tempestuous daughter Katie??s deeply inappropriate boyfriend Ray, for instance, or the sudden appearance of a red circular rash on his hip.
At 57, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden and enjoying the freedom to be alone when he wants. But then he runs into a spot of bother. That red circular rash on his hip: George convinces himself it??s skin cancer. And the deeply inappropriate Ray? Katie announces he will become her second husband. The planning for these frowned-upon nuptials proves a great inconvenience to George??s wife, Jean, who is carrying on a late-life affair with her husband??s ex-colleague. The Halls do not approve of Ray, for vague reasons summed up by their son Jamie??s observation that Ray has ??strangler??s hands.? Jamie himself has his own problems ?? his tidy and pleasant life comes apart when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to Katie??s wedding. And Katie, a woman whose ferocious temper once led to the maiming of a carjacker, can??t decide if she loves Ray, or loves the wonderful way he has with her son Jacob.
Unnoticed in the uproar, George quietly begins to go mad. The way these damaged people fall apart ?? and come together ?? as a family is the true subject of Haddon??s hilarious and disturbing portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.
A Spot of Bother is Mark Haddon??s unforgettable follow-up to the internationally beloved bestseller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Once again, Haddon proves a master of a story at once hilarious, poignant, dark, and profoundly human. Here the madness ?? literally ?? of family life proves rich comic fodder for Haddon??s

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