Spot of Bother
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. At sixty-one, George Hall is settling down to a comfortable retirement. When his tempestuous daughter, Katie, announces that she is getting married to the deeply inappropriate Ray, the Hall family is thrown into a tizzy. Unnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his mind. As parents and children fall apart and come together, Haddon paints a disturbing yet amusing portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.
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Community Reviews
A Spot of Bother invites the reader to live alongside George for a while. Recently retired, with whole days to fill and plenty of time to reflect on his life, George’s mind goes into hyperdrive. We see the world through his complex and erratic thought processes as he struggles with anxiety and panic attacks linked to the fears of growing old, family drama and the world he knows changing before him. I loved The Curious Incident so I was interested to see how Mark Haddon would deal with writing about mental health. He approaches it in a similar way, by applying small moments of humour to very raw, real-life circumstances. Mostly, this achieves a readable and enjoyable balance, but there were a few moments when I found the storyline too depressing. Jaime, George’s son, was my favourite character by far.
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