| A Spot of Bother | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Haddon
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  127 reviews
Sales Rank: 515
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0099506920
EAN: 9780099506928
ASIN: 0099506920
Publication Date: June 7, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 126-127 of 127 | | « PREV 1 ... | | |
 Disappointing October 2, 2006
20 out of 26 found this review helpful
Mark Haddon's previous book was very funny "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" and was unique. Needless to say I was very eager to get to grips with "A spot of bother". I must state I was disappointed. The book is well written with believeable characters but It reads like an episode cross of two sit-coms "Keeping Up Appearances" and "One foot in the grave". If you must read this book, save a few quid and wait until it comes out on paperback.
 A deeply empathetic novel peopled with real characters September 20, 2006
14 out of 20 found this review helpful
From A Spot of Bother: A Novel:
"If he were given the choice he would rather someone had broken his leg. You did not have to explain what was wrong with a broken leg. Nor were you expected to mend it by force of will.
...
What he felt mostly was a relentless, grinding dread which rumbled and thundered and made the world dark, like those spaceships in science-fiction films whose battle-scorched fuselages slid onto the screen and kept on sliding onto the screen because they were, in fact, several thousand times larger than you expected when all you could see was the nose cone.
The idea of genuinely having cancer was beginning to seem almost a relief, the idea of going into hospital, having tubes put into his arm, being told what to do by doctors and nurses, no longer having to grapple with the problem of getting through the next five minutes."
Mark Haddon's follow up novel to the curious incident of the dog in the night-time is another sort of exploration into the darker, more obscure regions of the human mind. Instead of an adolescent main character with Asperger's Syndrome, in A Spot of Bother Haddon portrays a 61-year old who begins to think he's losing his mind shortly after finding a mysterious skin lesion on his hip.
George Hall is convinced he has cancer, and that there's nothing that can be done for him. He's plunged into a dark, confusing sort of despair in which the world seems to wobble on its axis, throwing life as he knew it into an alternate nightmarish dimension. Fear overtakes him, often crippling him, and he begins having panic attacks he believes are a further proof of the cancer he's convinced himself is ravaging him.
Meanwhile, his daughter is planning her second marriage to a man he and his wife disapprove of. His wife is having an affair with a former colleague of his, and his homosexual son lurks like an unsolved problem in the background.
George Hall is falling apart.
Mark Haddon's second novel is stellar. It's at times riotously funny, deeply empathetic and peopled with characters the reader comes to identify with so closely it's not surprising to find yourself actually worrying about them. Well, at least I hope it's not surprising to find yourself worrying about fictional characters!
Perhaps I've just hit on fodder for Mark Haddon's third novel, devoted to the notion that readers can actually come to care so much for fictional characters they build a delusional world around them.
All royalty checks accepted, Mr. Haddon.
A Spot of Bother is a book not to be missed. Thanks so much to Doubleday for sending me a review copy of this book.
Spot On! September 12, 2006
45 out of 50 found this review helpful
This is a startling book which leaves a strong aftertaste. And that's surprising really, because there is nothing new or out of the ordinary here.
The power of the novel comes from the fact that everyone reading it will surely be able to identify some aspect of their own behaviour or that of someone they know or have known. The book consists of 140 odd very short chapters and this works well, actually driving you on to read "just one more." To my surprise, I've just finished this in less than two days but it really is that compelling.
The style is very easy and it flows well. Each chapter views things from the standpoint of one of the main characters and there is some overlap between the narration of events, so that the reader can determine the subtle differences in the way the same words or actions appear to different individuals.
Most stunning of all is the author's ability to put himself inside the thoughts of some very different characters of widely diverse ages and backgrounds. The understanding shown of the effects of retirement and late middle age, and the physical / mental damage caused by depressive illness is a triumph of observation and empathy.
None of this makes the book sound much fun but it is. It is simultaneously sad , uplifting and very, very funny. Overall, it is that rare beast, a literary novel which is also a page - turner. Order it now - you'll want to have the hardback to keep!
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