I’ve just finished reading Mark Haddon’s second novel “A Spot of Bother”. Mark Haddon (he’s got a fairly odd website here) came to prominence a few years ago when his book “The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time” which, if my memory serves me right is about a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who wakes up to find a (dead) dog in his garden pinned to the ground with a garden fork. It was a much lauded book because of the nature of its central character and the way that it was written to capture his thoughts. It was a children’s book – but only sort of. Anyway, “A Spot of Bother” is about the mental breakdown of a retired man (George) who finds some eczema on his leg, thinks it is cancer and proceeds to enter a downward spiral of panic, and irrationality. His situation is not helped by the fact that his daughter is getting married for a second time to a man who everyone thinks is unsuitable and his son has broken up with his boyfriend but the final straw occurs when he returns home unexpectedly to find… well, I won’t tell you what he comes home to find because that might spoil the story.
I did enjoy reading this book, but I also didn’t enjoy it. George’s descent does not make pleasant reading – it’s just too plausible in some ways and whilst the book is funny in places it is also rather dark in places. One thing is for sure though, DO NOT do what I did. DO NOT read the section just about halfway through (leading up to page 250) just before you go to sleep. That section is NOT for the faint-hearted.
Tim O'Hare 