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A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon


Janet

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  • 2 years later...

This was one of my reading group books a while back, and I have to admit, I was apprehensive before I started it, as I’ve never managed to get past page 22 of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Easy going writing, and a great characterisation of the male lead, I found this a comfortable book to sit and read. The short chapters, in turns focusing on different characters, were a god send for someone with limited reading time and the small number of characters (the main focus is on the four members of the family, George in particular) meant it was easy to dip in and out when time allowed.

 

I thought the characterisation of the men was very good, but the females seemed to be slightly more sketchy, although their stories were all there if you looked carefully enough, and picked up the details from a small, often throwaway line in their own chapters.

 

I was unfortunate enough to be reading while having lunch one day, when I read the graphic scene where George decides to take action, which certainly made me squirm, but was actually one of the best chapters in the book for me, as it really seemed to show the depth of what George was going through mentally, and yet how he managed to make it seem to himself like a perfectly sensible thing to do.

 

Overall, I thought it was a good read, although I’m still not sure I’d read any more by this author unless I was prompted to by a book group or reading circle.

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  • 7 months later...

Since there's a lot to say about this book, and I don't know how to put it right now, I'll just post the review I wrote it :)

 

Haddon's disturbing yet very funny portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.

 

The last sentence of the synopsis is a very accurate description of the book :D

 

By no means is this a comedy, a funny, light read. If anything, it's pretty grotesque (at times). Very direct, sometimes aggressive, and not to mention - disturbing.

George is a man who's recently retired, and doesn't know what to do with all this free time on his hands. He realizes that he hasn't been involved in the lives of his wife and children as much as he thought he's been, and starts feeling useless. On top of all this, he gets obsessed with the idea of having cancer and dying. It's just fear of change, and getting old, and of death. Convinced that he's dying, he becomes a bit (or more than just a bit? ) insane. And he starts observing things about his family he hasn't noticed before, reveals some secrets, and faces some things he's been hiding from. All while being insane :D

 

I make it sound funny, though it really isn't funny to read. Sometimes it's shocking and nauseating, maybe even a bit over the top, but I guess Haddon wanted to exaggerate to describe the ridiculousness of the situation, and to show it's not a problem to just put aside and let it be solved on its own. In all that, I'm sure he added the humour to make the story less tragic and scary, but you still don't really feel the humour as much as all of the other...disturbing things.

 

The chapters are short, and each chapter is told from the viewpoint of one of the characters, so you know how they all feel about a certain event, which makes the story more evolved, and gives you a better insight into it. And you also get to know the characters that way. It's not a typical portrait, though it does focus on the characters and their thoughts, emotions, but it's described through their actions and decisions, instead of analyzing them through regular descriptions.

 

It's not a bad book, and it certainly did keep me wanting to read on, but despite that, I don't feel like reading it again :D

Edited by Brida
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