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A Spot of Bother
 
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A Spot of Bother (Hardcover)

by Mark Haddon (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (158 customer reviews)
RRP: £17.99
Price: £11.50 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

A Spot of Bother + The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Price For Both: £16.29

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd; First Edition edition (31 Aug 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0224080466
  • ISBN-13: 978-0224080460
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.6 x 4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (158 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 195,567 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #16 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > H > Haddon, Mark

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Product Description

Tom Adair, Scotsman

"perfect medicine – easy to swallow, a touch formulaic, but nipping the nerve and hitting the truth"

Julie Wheelwright, Scotland on Sunday

"simultaneously riotously funny, profoundly insightful and deeply poignant"
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

A Spot of Bother
78% buy the item featured on this page:
A Spot of Bother 3.5 out of 5 stars (158)
£11.50
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
17% buy
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time 4.4 out of 5 stars (524)
£4.79
Agent Z and the Penguin from Mars (Red Fox fantastic stories)
2% buy
Agent Z and the Penguin from Mars (Red Fox fantastic stories) 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
£3.87
A Thousand Splendid Suns
2% buy
A Thousand Splendid Suns 4.7 out of 5 stars (462)
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Customer Reviews

158 Reviews
5 star:
 (47)
4 star:
 (46)
3 star:
 (23)
2 star:
 (18)
1 star:
 (24)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (158 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
91 of 97 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The Curiously Good Second Novel, 11 Sep 2007
This review is from: A Spot of Bother (Paperback)
Mark Haddon, damn him, has written a second novel which is better than the first. It isn't LIKE the first one, the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, so ignore the reviewers below who seem to think that like a brand name, an author's name should guarantee an identical experience every time. This time Haddon approaches a superficially ordinary family, perhaps like yours or mine, and goes into the little crises and difficulties which make family life so hard to bear. Dad may be an alcoholic, may be a hypochondriac, may be going mad.... you make your own decision as you read his narrative of the family going through weddings, arrivals and departures, illnesses and just day to day coping. But the style is distinctively, freshly, hilariously Haddon and very recognisable as the work of the same hand.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Touching and funny., 16 Feb 2007
By Hannah W (Dundee, Scotland) - See all my reviews
The central character of 'A Spot Of Bother' is George Hall, a 57-year-old man from Peterborough, recently retired and a touch overwhelmed by his newly discovered wealth of free time. Other people we meet and follow are George's wife Jean, who is having an affair with one of George's ex-co-workers; their son Jamie, who is having relationship problems of his own; and their daughter Katie who is about to get married to Ray, a man none of the family are sure about and who Katie does not appear to be madly in love with. The book's narrative follows one character at a time, allowing the reader to see events from everyone's point of view.

Plot-wise, the book it pretty simple - Katie and Ray are to get married at George and Jean's home, and everything must be organised - Jamie has to patch things up with his boyfriend, Katie has to decide whether she really wants to get married ... and George catches Jean with her lover, fears he is dying of cancer and thus begins to go mad.

Haddon's genius is to occupy the minds of the different characters in an entirely believable (and readable) manner, from the doubts of Katie's impending marriage to Jamie's love for his partner to the madness of King George, the head of the family. It's a difficult book to put down once begun, and although a light read on some levels nonetheless satisfying - the stand-out sections being those eloquent yet terrifying descriptions of George's descent into madness.
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67 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A riotously funny look into the lives of ordinary people, 16 Nov 2007
By Gordon Eldridge (Southport, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Spot of Bother (Paperback)
This book has been criticized by some reviewers because its characters are too ordinary. This is the very quality that makes the book such a delight for me. The book exposes a family dealing with aging and retirement, a homosexual son, marriage and relationship difficulties and the opinions of the world around them. The dilemmas faced by these ordinary characters are familiar to us all, but Haddon's humorous and insightful treatment of them can be quite thought-provoking.

The book is riotously funny. Haddon's metaphors and similes alone will have you in stitches and dying to try them out yourself to show what a witty conversationalist you are. Let me give you an example:

"George could do the bluff repartee about cars and sport if pressed. But it was like being a sheep in the nativity play".

A thoroughly enjoyable read. You will finish it in a few nights.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A Spot of Bother
This has a lot of very witty and perceptive writing about a somewhat disfunctional family, each of whom is beautifully portrayed. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Mr. Michael J. Powley

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic read
Having read his first book I was intrigued by what this book would be like.....I was NOT disappointed. It's one of the best books I've read in ages. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ms. S. J. Palmer

3.0 out of 5 stars Almost wish I hadn't bothered
I did not expect another "Curious" but did hope for the same quality of originality and story telling. Read more
Published 1 month ago by C. Elizabeth Read

5.0 out of 5 stars What a brilliant book
There is absolutely nothing in this book that is big - the events described are pretty day-to-day, the characters are people that you know, even the chapters only run to a few... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Sulkyblue

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, but ultimately a season finale from a sitcom
After the amazing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, I started this book expecting something a bit more thrilling, or a least amusing. Read more
Published 3 months ago by JJ Merelo

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointing
After reading Curious Incident I was expecting another stonking read...this fell well short. The reader is told everything so doesn't have to put 2 and 2 together, and whilst the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by R. Day

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read
After reading Mark Haddon's previous novel a few years ago, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, I was eager to get my hands on A Spot of Bother. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Roxanne Clements

5.0 out of 5 stars A tragicomic masterpiece
It's a long time since I have read such a funny book about the complications of family life and relations in general. Read more
Published 5 months ago by J. P. Arroyo

1.0 out of 5 stars Shame on you, Haddon !
Oh dear, where to begin? Another reviewer sums this book up perfectly by describing it as "My Family meets One Foot In The Grave". I would like to add " .. Read more
Published 5 months ago by H. Morris

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Brilliant!
I have been looking for a really good book for ages and this one has had me turning the light off late - glued to it. What can I say? Read more
Published 6 months ago by Sue Peters

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