false 3091524 117746 4701 0385520514 9780385520515 1021 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165448360m/4701.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165448360s/4701.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4701.A_Spot_of_Bother 3.43 4870
At 61, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden, reading historical novels and listening to a bit of light jazz. Then his tempestuous daughter, Katie, announces that she is getting re-married, to the deeply inappropriate Ray. Her family is not pleased – as her brother Jamie observes, Ray has “strangler’s hands.” Katie can’t decide if she loves Ray, or loves the wonderful way he has with her son Jacob, and her mother Jean is a bit put out by all the planning and arguing the wedding has occasioned, which get in the way of her quite fulfilling late-life affair with one of her husband’s ex-colleagues. And the tidy and pleasant life Jamie has created crumbles when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to the dreaded nuptials.

Unnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his mind.

The way these damaged people fall apart – and come together – as a family is the true subject of Haddon’s disturbing yet amusing 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. Here the madness – literally – of family life proves rich comic fodder for Haddon’s crackling prose and bittersweet insights into misdirected love.]]> 1050 3.73 110612 12104 2006 0 0 false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 15 05:50:38 -0700 2007 Thu Dec 17 00:40:24 -0800 2009 Mark Haddon's that I read was breath-takingly wonderful in its simple narrative style and complicated plot. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was a work of unabashed genius masquerading as a simple family farce.

This book is like that, only bigger and b...more...]]>