A Spot of Bother
Rating: 2/5
Date Read: May 2009
1. This is the story of George, who mistakes eczema for cancer and quickly becomes obsessed with it. His wife is having an affair, his daughter is marrying a man she may not love for the sake of her son, and his son is gay. The story is about these relationships and how George deals (or fails to deal) with life’s twists and turns.
2. I read this book for two reasons: (1) I adored Mark Haddon’s first book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and (2) my husband told me this one was also wonderful.
3. My husband was wrong. I did not enjoy this book. It took me ages to get through it. I didn’t like any of the characters for half the book. Apparently they grew on me (according to my notes) but I have no memory of this. I also don’t think it should take half a book for me to start enjoying myself.
Did anyone have a different experience?
Three Things Thursday is a new weekly feature where I review books I read prior to blogging by telling you just three things about them.
my books. my life. 
I wasn’t a fan either. I loved his first book, but this one fell flat for me.
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Interesting review, Michelle! I read Haddon’s ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ and loved it! But somehow I never got around to reading ‘A Spot of Bother’. When I read the blurb at the back it didn’t appeal to me. I am still in two minds now – your review makes me think that I shouldn’t read the book and Ben’s recommendation to you makes me think that maybe I should give it a try 🙂
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I enjoyed his first book much, much more. I still enjoyed this one, but it was definitely not enjoyable as in fun or touching or anything along those lines. I thought he wrote interesting characters, even if they weren’t exactly likable, but I thought the main character was pretty psychotic and I never really understood exactly what was going on with him. Was hard for me to really connect with anyone but maybe the wife. Who was having an affair….hmm. Strange.
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