A SPOT OF BOTHER by MARK HADDON.
At fifty-seven, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden, reading historical novels, listening to a bit of light jazz. Then Katie, his unpredictable daughter, announces that she is getting remarried, to 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 way he cares for her son Jacob, and her mother Jean is a bit put out by the way the wedding planning gets in the way of her affair with one of her husband's former 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.
- Back Cover Blurb
It began when George was trying on a black suit in Allders the week before Bob Green's funeral.
- First Sentence; Chapter 1
SOURCE ... A charity shop buy.
READ FOR A CHALLENGE? ... No.
MY THOUGHTS ... The author's first novel (and the second of his that I've read) after his critically acclaimed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (not a book I rated all that highly but that's a whole other blog post).
503 pages! 503 pages! Why oh why once started do I have to see a book through to the bitter ending even if its apparent early on that I'm not enjoying it? It isn't as if I haven't got a mountain of books just begging to be read and yet still I persist in reading books that I'm just not feeling. It's all very well if like the author's first book this wasn't that long but 503 pages!
YAWN!
Like my last read (Sue Townsend's The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year) this was another novel about the absurdities of family life; of suburban living, another novel in which a middle aged father has a shed, another novel in which there's infidelity involving a work colleague; an infidelity everyone is OK with (Heck! The 'lover' is even invited to a family wedding in case the adulterer needs emotional support), another novel that as it turns out goes nowhere.
AGGGGHHH!
Not what I considered a well written novel ... even taking into account that the thesaurus was put to good use if the word 'clearly' being interchanged with 'apparently'/'obviously' was anything to go by.
With short (sometimes very short) chapters that all too often felt like they were the outline of a chapter that was yet to be plumped out, that ended on what passed for a cliff-hanger.
With too many characters that did not grow (and this despite the fact that just about every chapter saw one or another of them having some kind of life changing epiphany); who felt like they'd been concocted purely as the ends to a means, whose every emotion was registered in that detached, almost dispassionate manner that worked to great effect in The Dog In The Night-Time but here felt insincere.
Working class = rough, unintelligent. Christians = no fun at all, homophobic.
Just as with Christopher in The Dog In The Night-Time I had my concerns about how some of the characters in A Spot Of Bother were depicted. Referred to in negative language throughout (at one point the author himself uses the word cripple to describe her) it was he portrayal of the disabled wedding guest that really annoyed me.
Full of crude sexual language (to say nothing of what might be considered other crude language ... what is it with the author and poo? Poo is mentioned a lot ... an awful lot) that what ... surprised ... shocked me?
Such language never sits particularly comfortably with me at the best of times but then it is sometimes in keeping with a character(s). Here however, well!
Arguably not something we needed to know ... and, quite frankly, most certainly not something I wanted to know. What I found particularly odd though was that any descriptions seemed to be reserved for sexual body parts/sexual acts ... those we got to know in graphic detail (and boy did we ever) ... any other descriptions were far and few between.
A book I'm sure many will have picked up purely on the basis of who wrote it. I wonder how many have come away feeling bitterly disappointed. Then again, each to their own, there are doubtlessly those out there who having not enjoyed Haddon's previous work will have liked this.
503 pages! 503 pages! Why oh why once started do I have to see a book through to the bitter ending even if its apparent early on that I'm not enjoying it? It isn't as if I haven't got a mountain of books just begging to be read and yet still I persist in reading books that I'm just not feeling. It's all very well if like the author's first book this wasn't that long but 503 pages!
YAWN!
Like my last read (Sue Townsend's The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year) this was another novel about the absurdities of family life; of suburban living, another novel in which a middle aged father has a shed, another novel in which there's infidelity involving a work colleague; an infidelity everyone is OK with (Heck! The 'lover' is even invited to a family wedding in case the adulterer needs emotional support), another novel that as it turns out goes nowhere.
AGGGGHHH!
Not what I considered a well written novel ... even taking into account that the thesaurus was put to good use if the word 'clearly' being interchanged with 'apparently'/'obviously' was anything to go by.
With too many characters that did not grow (and this despite the fact that just about every chapter saw one or another of them having some kind of life changing epiphany); who felt like they'd been concocted purely as the ends to a means, whose every emotion was registered in that detached, almost dispassionate manner that worked to great effect in The Dog In The Night-Time but here felt insincere.
Working class = rough, unintelligent. Christians = no fun at all, homophobic.
Just as with Christopher in The Dog In The Night-Time I had my concerns about how some of the characters in A Spot Of Bother were depicted. Referred to in negative language throughout (at one point the author himself uses the word cripple to describe her) it was he portrayal of the disabled wedding guest that really annoyed me.
Full of crude sexual language (to say nothing of what might be considered other crude language ... what is it with the author and poo? Poo is mentioned a lot ... an awful lot) that what ... surprised ... shocked me?
Such language never sits particularly comfortably with me at the best of times but then it is sometimes in keeping with a character(s). Here however, well!
Arguably not something we needed to know ... and, quite frankly, most certainly not something I wanted to know. What I found particularly odd though was that any descriptions seemed to be reserved for sexual body parts/sexual acts ... those we got to know in graphic detail (and boy did we ever) ... any other descriptions were far and few between.
A book I'm sure many will have picked up purely on the basis of who wrote it. I wonder how many have come away feeling bitterly disappointed. Then again, each to their own, there are doubtlessly those out there who having not enjoyed Haddon's previous work will have liked this.
8 comments:
This sounds awful and I'm not sure I could have finished it. I have enough drama in my real life at the moment to willingly take on drama in a long, poorly written novel. Pleasure reading should be an escape.
We need to find you some better books, Felicity!
I am also hesitant to put down a book once I start. With that, a five hundred page plus novel is long. Too bad that it was so disappointing.
I read this 12 years ago so referred to Goodreads to see what I thought. I gave it 3 of 5 stars which is rather low for me. I honestly don't remember much about the book, especially the page count. I didn't write a review so I'm guessing I was underwhelmed. Hope your next read is much more to your liking.
Felicity, I applaud your honesty. It doesn't sound like a book I'd enjoy, either.
Felicity,
I am sorry that this book was such
a bitter disappointment. But as always
I truly appreciate your honesty and
criticism.
Raven
That's a long book to put the time into reading. Especially if you didn't enjoy it. I'll pass on this one.
I think I would have had to quit reading.
sorry this one didn't do it for you. better luck with the next one
sherry @ fundinmental
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