It's like rain in your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's a good advice that you just didn't take
and who would've thought...it figures
Ironic by Alanis Morisette

George Hall menjalani hidupnya tanpa neko-neko. Menikah, punya anak, punya rumah dan pekerjaan yang bagus, pokoknya segala hal yang sepatutnya dimiliki lelaki baik-baik. Namun memasuki masa pensiun, tiba-tiba berbagai masalah menjungkirbalikkan hidupnya yang sempurna. Putrinya Katie akan melangsungkan pernikahan kedua dengan lelaki yang menurut George dan Jean, istrinya, tidak selevel dengan Katie. Putra mereka Jamie akan membawa pacarnya Tony ke pernikahan tersebut, yang membuat George terpaksa harus mulai menerima kenyataan bahwa Jamie adalah seorang gay. Sebentuk daging tiba-tiba muncul di pinggul George, membuatnya depresi karena takut mati terserang kanker. Dan puncaknya, Jean berselingkuh dengan mantan rekan sekantor George. George pun mulai bertanya-tanya, apakah selama ini dia telah menyia-nyiakan waktunya, dengan tidak melakukan hal-hal yang disukainya, demi mengejar hidup yang aman. Sementara pernikahan putrinya sudah semakin dekat...

Rusuhnya persiapan pernikahan memang menarik dijadikan bahan cerita. Sejumlah film yang pernah saya tonton juga mengangkat tema serupa, seperti Father of the Bride, My Bestfriend's Wedding, Rachel Getting Married, dll. Walaupun tidak persis sama, tapi benang merahnya adalah berbagai masalah yang timbul menjelang hari pernikahan. Mungkin karena acara pernikahan sering kali menguras tenaga dan emosi, sehingga rawan mengundang pertengkaran, tangisan, pertemuan, pelarian, atau malah perpisahan.

Itu sebabnya meskipun dalam novel ini Mark Haddon masih punya 'daya magis' untuk menyihir pembaca seperti saya tetap terpaku menyimak halaman demi halaman sampai tuntas, namun tema yang diangkat tidak seunik The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Di buku ini, Haddon sangat sabar memaparkan detail hari demi hari yang dilewati masing-masing tokoh. Ritual mandi atau makan sepulang dari kantor bisa dia jabarkan satu per satu tanpa kehilangan stamina. Bagi pembaca yang menunggu-nunggu aksi seru mungkin bisa mati bosan di tengah jalan :D Tapi untungnya Haddon masih menyisipkan lelucon-lelucon sarkastik di antara cerita, jadi cukup menghibur.

Yang jelas novel ini kembali membuat saya berpikir, apakah saya sebaiknya tetap hidup lurus-lurus saja seperti selama ini, atau mulai nekat mengejar semua yang ingin saya lakukan tapi tidak pernah berani saya lakukan? Hidup toh cuma sekali....

Hehehehehe

Wow..............

I just notice Mark Haddon has a new book coming out (short stories) ---"The Pier Falls"

I entered the 'give-a-way' (a girl can hope) -- :)

I LOVED this book sooooooooooooo much --I had a few copies at one time.... (gave copies away).
For some reason --I like this 'MORE' than a few of my friends --but I was DYING LAUGHING ...(forgive me if I sound nasty) ....during the bedroom scenes....
and then there was the daughter's wedding... (I just LOVED this book --and could read it again)...I adore the authors sense of humor.

I thought it was hilarious --AND touching!

I know everyone remembers "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night"


Every so often somebody asks me....'what is a good-charming-light -(but not slapstick) book to read? THIS would be THAT book.....(especially for old married farts with daughters like myself)

George and jean are a rather dull couple in their fifties (though they seemed more like about eighty to me). Their daughter Katie is getting married to a man they are not very keen on. Their son jamie is gay and they worry about whether he's bringing his boyfriend to the wedding. Jamie dithers about whether to bring his boyfriend to the wedding. George appears to be going barmy. Jean is having an affair with a neighbour only marginally more interesting than George. We get a lot of agonising by katie over whether or not she loves her fiancee Ray, but never a convincing explanation of what Ray sees in Katie. Katie's young son Jacob misses his real daddy. Nothing much happens except that George keeps wandering off and having episodes of weirdness. There are a lot of tedious descriptions of everyday activities to pad out the story, we hear about how various characters are eating,brushing their teeth, going to the loo (Mark Haddon is particularly fascinated by poo, there's a lot of poo in this book) etc. We get a whole detailed description of an episode of Bob the Builder that Jacob is watching. The only characters I really liked were Katie's boyfriend Ray and Jamie's boyfriend Tony, I hoped that perhaps they might fall for each other and run off together and get away from this dreary family, but no. This book might have been a bit more entertaining if it had been shorter and less rambling, and with less poo. But not much.

Šią knygą perskaičiau tikėdamasis gilių psichologinių įžvalgų, nestandartinio siužeto apie nerimo kamuojamą žmogų. Lūkesčiai pasiteisino tik dalinai: siužetas tikrai nestandartinis, bet pagrindinio veikėjo paveikslui (ypač jo poelgiams) psichologinio pagrindimo (o dažnai ir vaizdingumo) pritrūko.
Kadangi apžvalgose nesistengiu atskleisti siužeto, gali pažymėti tik tiek, kad romanas parašytas klasikine maniera, nėra jame sąmonės srautų, pasitaiko angliško humoro blyksnių. Mėgstantiems šeimos dramas ši lengvai skaitoma knyga gali patikti, nes nagrinėjamos sutuoktinių ištikimybės, draugų santykių, tėvų-vaikų, netradicinės orientacijos asmenų problemos.
Trūkumai: mirtina liga, bet intrigos mažoka; beprasmių dialogų gausa; nors anotacijoje rašoma, kad tai itin linksma knyga, bet skaitant nesinori juoktis (tuo labiau – verkti). Blogiausia tai, kad skaitytojas nepergyvena nei kartu su herojais, nei dėl tų herojų likimų.
Vertinimas – 7.

This was a big disappointment. I just loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time but this book just didn't do it for me. I really enjoy Haddon's writing style but I didn't find this particular story engaging at all...

Mark Haddon is such a brilliant writer; no one can make the everyday crises of life as entertaining and readable as he can, and does, in this tale of a suburban man whose smoothly uneventful life begins to unravel spectacularly when he discovers a small lesion on his hip. This mundane tragedy sparks a convoluted tale of misadventure that says more about the sweetness, kindness and flawed goodness of humanity (and says it with such excellent humour), than most books I've read.

A Spot of Bother is a more mainstream book than The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, less ground-breaking and with fewer surprises. It’s not a great novel in that respect, but it is very, very, very, very good.

I read a lot. I read some good stuff and some crap. A lot of crap actually. But never before have I put down a book and immediately gone and fetched another offering from the same author and started to read it. At 9:30pm. On a Sunday.

But this is what I did last night after finishing A Spot of Bother. Mark Haddon is a most amazing author. His previous book is The curious Incident of the dog in the Night – Time and I started reading that again last night after finishing this one.

A Spot of Bother is an amazing story. It had me smiling out loud and almost weeping with sympathy. Essentially it is the story of a family getting ready for a wedding. But actually it is the story of a dignified old man trying to politely go crazy in public.

The characters are completely believable – every single one of them. The writing goes from tiny minutely detailed moments to sweeping paragraphs covering the rest of the day. The conversations are so ordinary as to seem familiar and the situations so ludicrous to remain fantastic.

Mark Haddon looks like the kind of man you would watch football with at the pub and then share a takeout curry with at the bus stop; he looks like a working class boy from the docks. But he writes with the skill of the angels. In this book of his the story is told from the point of view of the main adult characters – and as each he writes in a completely believable way. He is a gay 30 year old lost and marginally fucked in the head; he is a 60 something year old woman having late life affair; he is a 20 something woman trying to work out if she loves her fiancée; and best of all – he is George, he is losing his mind and he is trying to do it discreetly.

I was totally absorbed from start to finish. I am smitten by the writings of this man.
These books are going to be hard to read and release. But A Spot of Bother and the soon to be completed and reviewed The curious Incident of the dog in the Night – Time will have to be released together. And I will release them because the experience of reading this man’s work is one to be shared.

People advised me not to read this, because it's nothing like the curious incident. And indeed it isn't. And all the better for it I suppose, I already read that book. But the style is there.. this book is about people, about family, we laugh at their little quircks and feel along with their fear and pain. This book is so intimate, I almost felt guilty about not looking away. Well done!

A very quirky, hilarious at times read. The title is just perfect.

Hilarious and heart-breaking. I wasn't quite gripped but ambled along nicely!

Who doesn't love a story about a retired husband and father slowly but surely losing his mind?

Part hypochondriac, Part neuroses, sprinkle in some anxiety and panic attacks, and a vision of something that no man should ever have to witness first hand -- and it's fun for the whole family.

Speaking of family, this ones got LOADS of issues! All the better to make you appreciate what you have.

Cleverly written, it had me turning pages like a maniac. I was dying to find out what was going to happen next! Although, for a moment there I was ready to shut the book and take a break... There's an awfully gritty part that takes place in the bathroom that had me cringing and tingly behind the knees... Bleck!

All in all, another home run for Haddon.. master of the "messed up families".

The Hall Family is falling apart. Hearing the separate viewpoints of its members, one can only conclude that this is a normal state of affairs. However, the succession of miscues, navel gazing, obsession with appearances, and self-inflicted awkwardness transform this domestic drama into an entertaining farce, a well-written and welcome escape from reality.

George, dutiful though reticent husband has just retired. Plenty of time to think. Think about what? Well, for starters he discovers a small lesion on his thigh. It's downhill from there. The doctor assures him its merely eczema. George concludes the doctor is wrong. No need to get a second opinion. George knows it's the end! Nightmarish scenes of hypochondria follow. That famous English reserve he has spent a lifetime cultivating is demolished in an of orgy of anxiety attacks intensified by the meltdowns of other family members.

Jean, his wife, is having a clandestine affair with David, George's ex-colleague. Uncharacteristically, George impulsively invites David over for dinner after running into him at a funeral. Nothing like a funeral to inspire an instinct to circle the wagons. If Jean was ruing the lack of excitement in her life, she will be getting plenty as the narrative unfolds.

Their daughter Katie had already made one mistake. She had a child with charming, handsome, vapid Graham. Graham left. She is raising the child Jacob on her own and planning to marry Ray whom everyone in the family considers unsuitable (for Katie or for them?), but pretends they're not thinking that. Given their own problems, it's a bit smug to deride Ray's bulky size, and obvious working class background.

Finally, the son, Jamie, is gay. His lover Tony becomes fed up when Jamie insists that Tony not accompany him to Katie's wedding, and leaves him. That abandonment sends Jamie into his own tailspin.

All of this unfolds with understated humor. The characters flounder between what they feel and what they think they are supposed to feel. The one source of sanity in all of this mayhem is the much maligned Ray.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Haddon has created an ensemble of clueless but sympathetic characters.