Middle-aged and anxious? Early old age and anxious? Then this book is _exactly_ what the doctor ordered.

Laugh-out-loud funny (if you like very dry British humor, that is), and at the same time very thoughtful and smart.

Can't wait to read more by Mark Haddon.

I loved ‘The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time’ by Mark Haddon when I read it some years ago; I saw the play when I was in London in April & as this has been on my shelves, also for some years, I thought it was time to finally get round to reading it; & it didn’t disappoint!

At first sight it’s an amusing mix of well observed family relationships, thought provoking insights & impending jeopardy... people trying to live their lives & others getting in the way; taking risks & hoping for the best; little white lies or lies of omission - they won’t matter will they, surely? As things progress it seems that everyone’s lives are falling apart due to the interrelated events & fears they all harbour & we get the feeling that if only they were honest with each other things would be so much smoother... it remains excruciatingly well observed; I hated that I related to some of the experiences of the 57 year old central character who’s crippled with anxiety & is going quite mad!

I was surprised to find I read this in just a week - it really does draw you along without much effort & I found myself reading it the morning before work & looking forward to getting home later to pick it up again. It was like waiting for an inevitable car crash happening in front of your eyes in slow motion... you will the characters to just ask that next question, just find out what’s really going on... but people fail to say what’s on their minds & miss finding out that the other person isn’t really thinking & feeling what they thought they were; like so often happens in real life, sadly.

This is a much easier read than my last one; I did a rough word count (I might have over-estimated with this one as there’s lots of chapters (144) & therefore a fair few blank & half pages) & it has about 160,000 words compared to the 207,000 of the last one... not as many fewer as I thought; so it’s an easier read... I read these 500 pages in half the time it took to read those 460 pages... maybe state of mind has a part to play, & busyness too... I do feel like I’m reading quicker & still taking more in as well at the moment; maybe it really is an acquired skill, improved with lots of practice, this reading thing....?

I found it hard to feel sorry for George, as much as I identified with his time in life; I know that stress causes heightened emotions & that we struggle to think straight & make sensible decisions or any decisions at all in that state of mind but it was hard to see where the stress was really coming from; stress, anxiety & depression don’t need ‘good reasons’ to take hold though, do they? Perhaps I’ve been lucky & this is how easy it can be to spiral out of control into a depressive maelstrom. Also, going mad is only relative; when you know a person’s motivation for a course of action it seems perfectly logical but without the context it could so easily look sectionable... we wonder why George held on to what he discovered & kept it to himself, but it was clearly not helpful!

I really like the book & will probably reflect on the little moments of wisdom, well-observed scenes from everyday life & insights into how we all think for a while to come; our obsession with our appearance & social convention; the way we take responsibility for things which are really not our fault at all; things we think when we’re sitting on the toilet; the stress of having a young child balanced against the proper perspective kids can bring to the most trying of circumstances & the way they can take the heat out of a situation just by being there & having their own needs; the things we do on our own when we’re not being watched (like doing a little pirouette as we move from one side of the kitchen to another which we’d never do if someone was watching) the extent to which we’re bound by convention & the way we always thought & saw the world & the way we realise the truth about a situation only when things have fallen apart.

The style of the writing is quite pacey, jovial & humorous but as things progress & it becomes clear that George is experiencing some really quite serious difficulties maintaining his grip on reality & a proper perspective on things I ended up not being sure if the tone & subject matter always quite matched. There are many small, overlapping chapters, conveying the plot from the perspective of the different characters; the pace is frenetic & undermines the descriptions on the cover suggesting subtlety, lightness of touch & tenderness… I was breathless with it & found it a bit oppressive at times; I wanted to press on & find out what happens but some of that was just so I could stop & catch my breath. Are these people really rather incapable & thoughtless? We don’t really behave like this do we? I suppose people do... at the start of the book it felt insightful & well observed but by the end the big event the whole book has been building up to seems to amplify the quirky humanity into downright stupidity... maybe that’s what the book is saying?

Highly recommended, I want to give it 3.5 stars out of 5 but pressed to give whole numbers it gets a 4*!

I like Mark Haddon. He has a very interesting writing style. I enjoyed "A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime" more than this one. However this one was very good, I like the way he makes you feel empathy for each of his characters.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
•
A Spot of Bother is massively readable, and funny in ways it shouldn’t be! I kept thinking, “should I really be chuckling at this?”

-Totalmente de acuerdo con el título, la verdad.-

Género. Novela.

Lo que nos cuenta. En el libro Un pequeño inconveniente (publicación original: A Spot of Bother, 2006) conoceremos a George, jubilado británico con una enorme vida interior que no es distinguible desde fuera. George siente que tiene un cáncer que acabará con su vida, aunque su médico le diga que es un eccema, y que dejará desolada a su familia. Su esposa tiene una aventura que la hace lucir hermosa y segura de sí misma otra vez, su hija Katie va a casarse de nuevo y con alguien que George no estima oportuno y su hijo Jaime no quiere casarse pero no podría, aunque quisiera, porque los matrimonios gays no están permitidos en el Reino Unido de esa época. George cree que extirpándose él mismo el cáncer todo se solucionará.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

A big read but very easy to read so i lapped it up
Loved George and his health worries raised by his depression and wife’s infidelity
Did not like his selfish wife at all and wanted to slap her!

such a good read. short chapters told from every characters perspective. the book got better and better building up to a great climax. love Haddon's writing!

2 ⭐️ this wasn’t really my read. mark haddon’s writing style is very detailed and for me that dragged a bit. the book deals with a lot of anxiety and other mental issues, which was hard to read about. especially because it’s about one of my biggest triggers. i could relate to george, but i hate how his family treated him. yet it also shows how hard it is when your loved ones deal with heavy anxiety.

the plot was full of messy characters and usually i enjoy their flaws, but in this novel it felt a bit unrealistic. it was just a lot to take in.

also, there was no need for this book to be 500 pages long.

Reviews of this book on GR were rather mixed. But, as my book group had decided that this would be our book this month, I forged ahead, trepidant and unenthused.

I liked Curious Incident... I liked it a lot. It had a charm, a sweetness, an appeal that resonated with many readers. I have recommended it to many, usually with good response.

But, in comparing these books, I have come accross a rather critical observation: they are different books! I appreciate, and agree, with other reviewers who have noted that if one reads Spot expecting a new, different, or improved Curious, they will be disappointed. And Spot is all the better for it.

Character study? Perhaps. Commentary on British class? I don't think so. Critical analysis of families, and relationships, and incipient maddness, or petulant children, or homosexuals, or extramarital affairs, or second marriages? Hardly.

But, the book attemps and accomplishes something much harder: it's funny. Laugh out loud funny; slapstick in parts, "unbelievable" in others, but funny. I increasingly enjoyed the book as I progressed. I was entertained and amused. This is no Shakespere. This pushes no literary envelope. This is not Pullitzer material.

But I liked it. And, thereby, it hit the mark.

A very entertaining and intelligent "page-turner", which is a rare combination of traits. As a story told from four well-written viewpoints, it succeeds in evoking an emotional connection with the characters. But I worry about too much modern fiction presenting the literary equivalent of short serial television episodes all jumbled together in something described as a novel.

I suppose readers' attention spans are becoming shorter, but should fiction really cater to that fact? There is definitely a craft to revealing multiple characters' motivations without resorting to the division of a book into 144 chapters written from different perspectives. It made me feel like a choose-your-own-adventure reader when I flipped through dozens of pages to continue on with one character's story for more than just four paragraphs at a time.

However, I have to say that the device certainly worked. I really couldn't put this book down, even while cooking. The characters felt three-dimensional (flawless in their depiction, in fact) and the plot was realistic yet unpredictable.

Just one teensy complaint: all four narrators had too many reveries about family holidays to foreign countries. Obviously this was a ploy to show just how close-knit this clan really is, but some other flashback options would have been appreciated. ...Or maybe we are to believe that the only time this family really existed together was on vacation, which is quite possible.

Just the right amount of convincing character arcs made this book worthy of an overused jacket-blurb adjective: heartwarming.

I suspect this novel was whipped up to fulfill the second book of the author's deal with the publisher -- and given the phenomenal success of the author's first book, the publisher went ahead with it. "A Spot Of Bother" lacks any of the precision and warmth and surprise of "A Curious..." Chapters read like outlines jotted down in a notebook. Hypochondriac dad: check. Philandering mother: check. Bitch sister: check. Gay brother: check.

The book only comes alive -- briefly, and then slips back into anonymity -- when George cuts off the growth from his hip. In that moment I was suddenly interested in him. But then we were back to characters who conformed to their outlines. Vaguely ethnic doctor: check. Mother feeling guilty: check. Sister unsure of her fiance: check. Brother dumped by boyfriend: check.

Dreary. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I adore Haddon's other novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, so I figured I should try another of his works. It was...interesting.

I love me some dry British humor, and Haddon is pretty good at it. The characters were engaging. I liked the ending a lot. That was the good stuff.

The plot wasn't fast or thick...you basically watch this family trip over themselves into a happy ending, without any major plot points or twists. That honestly didn't bother me too much...after all, I love The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and very little happens in that novel. I think what got me the most was the characters. Yes, they're engaging, but in the sense that you want to smack and yell at them. So many of the mistakes that happen that lead to the climax are a result of them not FREAKING TALKING to each other or having basic listening skills. Maybe it's because I don't come from an insane family (or maybe it's a British thing? Sounds stupid, but what do I know about British culture?), but it got on my nerves a lot.