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A Spot of Bother: A Novel
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A Spot of Bother: A Novel
Unavailable
A Spot of Bother: A Novel
Audiobook11 hours

A Spot of Bother: A Novel

Written by Mark Haddon

Narrated by Simon Vance

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

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 crackling prose and bittersweet insights into misdirected love.


From the Hardcover edition.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 5, 2006
ISBN9780739342657
Unavailable
A Spot of Bother: A Novel
Author

Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon has written a number of successful picture books with HarperCollins, including Sea of Tranquility, illustrated by Christian Birmingham, and is best known for his novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. He lives in Oxford with his wife and two sons.

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Reviews for A Spot of Bother

Rating: 3.5287596992810064 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

1,669 ratings110 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Summary: Recent retiree George Hall is not having a good week. His daughter Katie has announced that she's getting married to a man George thinks is not good enough for her, his son Jamie will be bringing his boyfriend to the wedding, and to top it all off, he's discovered a lesion on his hip that he's convinced is cancerous. As George slips further into depression and anxiety, his family begins to go to pieces around him, and there seems to be little chance of stopping the comedy of errors and returning to normal for long enough to hold a wedding - if they can even begin to figure out what normal is.Review: This book reminded me quite a lot of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, if not so much in style, then definitely in tone, dry wit, and subject matter - a "typical" family in crisis while each of the members are undergoing crises of their own. The Corrections was fancier with the language, while this book was more straightforward, and had a less convoluted plot structure. Both manage to portray real people, with real problems, and this book in particular does an excellent job of making its characters both realistic and sympathetic. This is not to say that any of them (except Ray, Katie's fiancée) are particularly nice or wonderful people - because real people have flaws and foibles and short tempers and make stupid decisions. This book also takes a potentially very depressing subject matter - depression, anxiety, fear of dying - and makes it subtly funny throughout, without trivializing it and while still treating its characters with compassion. There was only one scene that I felt lost its tone - George attempting self-surgery was I think supposed to be played as a bit of a farce, but for me wound up over the line into disturbing, disgusting, and genuinely hard to listen to, although I've got a pretty weak stomach for that sort of thing. Overall, though, I enjoyed this book - it does a good job of making your own daily crises seem like small potatoes compared to those of the Hill family.Recommendation: Nothing particularly ground-breaking, and I wouldn't necessarily pick it up just because you like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, but it's a solid black comedy and enjoyable and easy to read.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Lang uitgerekte tragikomische film.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    This went downhill from a mediocre premise. The ending was entirely unsatisfying, and if any part of the goal was to challenge the way we (and men in particular) experience and respond to mental health crises, it failed. In the future I will trust my gut and skip the sad sack family narratives.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Incredibly annoying characters I found impossible to care about. What an irritating book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I am not going to compare this one to Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Yes, that one is a great book but it has been too long since I read it for me to retain any strong memories. With A Spot of Bother, Haddon brings readers into the heart of the Hall family and the drama they create over the Katie’s approaching second marriage. One would think that a marriage the majority of the family is not all that keen on occurring would be enough fodder for any book, but we learn that each family member has its own self-absorbing issues: wife/mother Jean is distracted by some private matters she wants desperately to keep private; son/brother Jamie is having problems with his boyfriend; Katie is starting to have some doubts about the marriage and George – quiet, respectable and dependable George – starts to psychologically unravel. There are a lot of really fun, entertaining bits as both George, other family members and the wedding planning hit some interesting, farcical lows but at its heart, this is a wonderful story of family dynamics. A delightful, entertaining read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An intriguing and fun story but with some philosophical moments
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A story of a middle-England disfunctional family preparing for a family wedding whilst the dad quickly decends into paranoia and depression. The story runs along at a nice pace with each short chapter telling the tale from a different characters perspective. It's a pretty basic story of family troubles, a bit soap opera-esque and not essentially a memorable book but it nonetheless held my attention. I did prefer Mark Haddon's debut story 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime' which I think must be quite an act to follow.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Throughout this sometimes redeeming, often horrible book, I kept thinking about how much every human being needs to be taught a lesson on how to treat other human beings who have mental illness. Can no one in this book just listen to the man and help him (without giving him a bottle of Valium)? Oh the frustration.

    If you loved The Curious Incident of the Dog... you probably won't like this novel by the same author. Not recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Quick paced with very, very short chapters written from each character's viewpoint that draw you in to their personality and problems but also keep a wry and humorous distance. It was funny, entertaining and warm but also realistic depicting what goes on in a quite reserved man's head as he has a nervous breakdown and how -- and why -- his family glosses over and doesn't realize what is going on. Less realistic in the various sudden onset, happy end conclusions though. That said I prefer happy ends to pessimism.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Enormously cheering.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Well written, but unfocused. Lacking in memorable characters.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Mostly a funny read. THe end felt a little too much like a british jones movie taking a bit away from the bulk of the book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    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.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    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.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Keine Familie, wie sie im Bilderbuch steht. George entdeckt ein Exzem an seinem Körper und verliert dadurch den Halt in dieser Welt. Jean betrügt ihren Mann, die Tochter Katie will zum zweiten Mal einen Typen heiraten, den sie nicht wirklich liebt und der Sohn Jamie versteckt sich und seine Homosexualität vor der Welt und seiner Familie.Das Leben eines jeden Familienmitglieds scheint den Bach hinunter zu gehen. Man trifft falsche Entscheidungen, verhält sich, wie man es sein ganzes Leben lang getan hat und verletzt damit die Gefühle der Menschen, die einen wirklich lieben.Jean möchte ein Leben leben, in dem sie spürt, dass sie geliebt wird. George will niemandem zur Last fallen und sich am liebsten selbst in die Psychiatrie einweisen. Jamie stößt seinem Freund immer wieder vor den Kopf, bis dieser beschließt einen Schlussstrich zu ziehen. Und Katie glaubt zwar, dass Ray ein guter Vater für ihren Sohn sein kann, doch ob sie ihn nur deswegen heiraten will, ist ihr unklar. Die Familienmitglieder haben wenig Kontakt untereinander, erst als jedes einzelne Leben droht, auseinander zu brechen, wird der Halt in der Familie gesucht, doch jeder ist so sehr mit sich selbst beschäftigt, dass ständig aneinander vorbei geredet wird.Der Roman schleppt sich durch seine knapp 450 Seiten ohne richtige Geschichte. Die Leben plätschern vor sich hin und bei allen passiert im selben Lebensabschnitt genau das Gleiche: Ihr Leben bekommt eine Wendung, jeder denkt, sein Leiden ist das schlimmste und will bemitleidet werden oder findet sich in Ausflüchten wieder. Wo sie eine Familie sein sollen, sind sie es nicht, erst zum Ende wird es ihnen begreiflich. Dann später die geballte Einsicht auf allen Seiten, beginnend bei Jamie und endend bei George.Wer sich seicht durch langweilige und egozentrische Leben tragen möchte: hier ist das Buch dazu.Nachdem ich von „The curious incident of the dog in the night time“ (Supergute Tage) so begeistert war, bin ich von diesem Werk umso enttäuschter. Schade.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    So, turns out I have read this at some point - I don't remember it too well but I do remember not caring for the characters (and it is after all a character driven story) to want to re-read it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    George's family is a bit of a mess. His screw-up daughter is about to get married (again) to an unsuitable match, his wife is sleeping with one of his old work mates, and he is beginning to wonder if he's wasted his life. All these disparate matters come to a head when George finds a lump on his thigh that he believes is cancerous. Suddenly, his existential dread ratchets up to a tremendous level and a full mental break down is triggered when he discovers his wife in bed with another man.Meanwhile, George's kids are struggling with their own relationships. His daughter, Katie, is planning her wedding but wondering if she truly loves her husband deep down. The truth is, she needs him very much to help her raise her son from her first marriage, but is that enough to sustain their bond?Brother Jamie is also finding his love life disintegrating. Jamie is gay but is only tentatively out to his family. He worries that bringing his boyfriend to his sister's wedding will result in some unsavory scenes. Offended by Jamie's reluctance to invite him, Tony summarily ends things.Unfortunately for all parties in the midst of a split, their true feels suddenly become clear: they are in love. All parties will be working to win the other back before Katie's wedding. All parties, that is, except George, who is incapacitated by anxiety and over-medicating himself with his latest prescriptions. Surely all these plot threads won't result in a bizarre and humorous scene at the wedding? This book is a charming and funny meditation upon topics of love, family, and mortality.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very different from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, but good fun. Once bit (in a bathroom) made me cringe when reading it!!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Plus a half star - might have got 4 stars but I have only skimmed through bits of the book. I wasn't sure when I started it if I had read it before but a few pages and it jumped back into my memory. Enjoyed it very much. The narrative voice captures the strangeness of what is normal in much the same way as my favourite Agent Z books. The central character George has retired and his mind and actions as he begins to actually connect with the real world are observed with the same sympathetic distance as his Agent Z character - a blend of alien and innocent intelligence and a deliberate perspective of ignorance of the dodgy premises we mostly use to navigate everyday life without spending much time thinking.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Since I am myself prone to panics, about a quarter of the way through this book, I wondered if I was mad to be reading it. Besides, some of the characters were infantile and spoiled. But I kept with it and am very glad I did. However, right before midway I took a break to finish Hesse's Siddhartha, that spiritual classic. Towards the latter half of A Spot of Bother characters start having Siddharthian epiphanies, the difference is these were warm and funny and I was moved. Haddon's novel takes really wise and compassionate look at human nature and relationships. Bitterly funny, touching... I found myself laughing at things that weren't funny, but were. Off-hand comments and sly humor kept the book from getting bogged down. Haddon shows we really are fragile and slightly pathetic beasts and, as this book illuminates, we really need each other.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I didn't enjoy this book. The blurb said it was funny, but it wasn't funny, it was sad and grim. And yet I couldn't put it down. It's well written. Mark Haddon understands people and has written a story that hooks you in. I just wish there had been a little more joy in there. Maybe it's me, but I don't find mental illness and dysfunctional relationships funny.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I understood what was going on, I just didn't like what was going on. Feel free to ignore my rating. I think I'm done reading Haddon. That first book was awful darn good, though.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a story which could happen in a lot of families. It's a story about relationship and fear of getting old, dying and loss.A husband who is retired and has too much time which isn't filled with hobbies, found an unusual spot on his skin. Therefore he's thinking that he's got cancer and has to die. At the same time his daughter announced to get married and he found out that his wife has an affair with a former workmate of him. Not enough of all troubles his gay son's liaison is on the edge and it didn't look like a happy end. The worst problem each protagonist is facing is that they don't speak openly with each other. I liked the listening. Even though it's fictional it's something that is taken right out of real life, something that many people have to face.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Although I guess I can see why certain fans don't like this one as much as Haddon's first book, I liked it just as well. It has the same flavor as the first, but with multiple main characters instead of just one. (I did not find them to be too many, as others are saying.)
    Mark Haddon still does a fantastic job of showing rather than telling in terms of his characters--he really has a wonderful way of letting the reader get inside the characters' heads. I think that was part of what made his first novel great, and he has held onto that in this one.
    Haddon writes well and is able to portray his characters both in angst and in happiness, which adds to the plot since one finds themselves identifying with the feelings of love, confusion, and upset. It is also an interesting perspective of how parents try to relate and understand their grown children and their decisions.

    What made this one almost better than Curious Incident was the abundance of poignant moments. This book does not lack for meaningful segments but also doesn't overdo it. I sat and thought about certain passages sometimes --they really made me think.
    I highly recommend this book to those who liked the first book for more than just its focus on a kid with a developmental disorder. He was very interesting, but I liked this family much more. They were more real, and quite a bit dysfunctional as any other family, only they had much more class, being English and all.

    The only parts of the book I had a hard time with, were (1) that the panic attacks were difficult to deal with, if you've ever had one. (2) The "scissors" scene made me cringe, and race through -- I cannot understand anyone being that sick, they could do this to themselves. But then again, I am a big baby when it comes to pain, having had so much of it already. (3) I had a hard time with the ending, what with the (very English??) "let's get over with this, and on with things" attitude the main character seemed to suddenly BE ABLE to develope.. if you have EVER been depressed, this does not happen quite so quickly, or so easily. I don't care if you're English, and have that "stiff upper lip" mentality. That man needed LOTS more therapy, and anti-depressants. (And maybe this is why so many people are having a hard time with this book. Who among us is really all that comfortable with mental illness....??)


    My favorite passage, of which there were many:


    "What was Jamie going to say? It seemed so obvious what he felt. But when he tried to put it into words it sounded so clumsy and unconvincing and sentimental. If only you could lift a lid on the top of your head and say, 'Look.'" (243)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A small British family lives through crisis after synchronous crisis in this droll, very dark comedy. Each member of the family is struggling with their own modern-day version of anguished malaise – deeply embroiled in their own variety of the existential condition. Fear of death, fear of love and the struggles in their relationships vie for attention as the chapters drift back and forth showing each character’s perspective on the conflicts.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    funny. sad. so true to life. one screwed up family. loved it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book to me feels like a very British, dark-comedic version of The Sound and the Fury. I did not enjoy that Southern classic and so did not enjoy this; if you did, then I think this will probably be a good read. It has a large number of similarities with Faulkner's story: like a gentler The Sound and the Fury, it is the story of a dysfunctional family which slowly and agonizingly falls apart and rebuilds itself into something new. It is told from the perspectives of several of the key members of the family, although in this case, it is limited third person perspective rather than first person. At least one of the narrators is not mentally sound. And again, one might consider that most of the emphasis surrounds the marriage of the daughter of the family, although fortunately, incest is not one of the themes here. Unfortunately, though the tale is certainly told--often by people I considered to be idiots--with sound and fury leavened by humour, for me, it too signified nothing.

    I felt the same dissatisfaction I experienced when reading The Sound and the Fury: the characters start out as a set of rather unpleasant, unlikeable, selfish people, do their best to make each other absolutely miserable--in this case, often for comedic effect--and eventually troop off the stage without having gained even a smidgeon of self-insight. For me, the phalanx of limited third person perspectives did the story a disservice. That additional layer of separation and dispassion let me hear the characters' selfish, vindictive thoughts without feeling, comprehending, or empathizing with the emotions behind them. This culminated in a rather curious effect: I ended by liking and empathizing only with a subset of characters whose perspective I did not experience. I think the story was meant to be profound as well as humorous, but for me, any profundity felt forced and any humour was tainted and stultified by the human misery it stemmed from. Not quite my cup of tea; however, I think readers who enjoy the family drama will appreciate this dark, ironic addition to the genre.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Middle aged man finds spot on abdomen, is sure it is a fatal tumor. Unreliable narrator takes us through what looks to be a comical family saga, but turns into something nearly tragic. Problem with tone nearly makes the book go off track, but I love the way Mark Haddon writes, with empathy for everyone.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I was expecting something original like [book:The Curious Incident about the Dog in Nighttime] which I devoured, but this one has none of the captivating writing-style. It was rather ordinary in that sense.

    Once I got over my initial disappointment, I started to connect with the characters, but by disc 3 of 5 I was ready for the book to end.

    The 'spots of bother' just kept happening over and over to the point it was annoying. Yes, it's a comical and perhaps realistic portrayal of a family that appears to be typical but is actually dysfunctional. By the time the wedding happens, the story starts to really drag and I wished it would just wrap up. Of course all the loose ends/problems are amicably resolved in the end and everyone's happy -- also annoying.

    This one is worth passing over.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A decent follow-on to the delightful The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Concerns a family dealing with a grown daughter's second wedding while the patriarch battles mental illness, mom has an affair, & brother gets dumped by his lover. Haddon manages the differing points of view of the various family members with aplomb. Engaging story-line with a somewhat unsatisfying ending.