A Spot of Bother

Critics

• Pleasant incidents

  A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon 390pp, Jonathan Cape, £17.99 Mark Haddon's first novel after the worldwide success of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a real oddity, but not at all in the way you might expect. Curious Incident was ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• It's a mute point

  A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon Jonathan Cape £17.99, pp390 A spot of bother, like a bit of trouble, is usually rather a lot. As phrases, they promise rather more than they want to deliver, but we want to know what the story is. And, indeed, why some ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

17 Reviews

• 7 people find this helpful

  

  I once wondered if it was a mistake buying this book when I was reading the first 100 pages. The pace is slow, the characters are distinct but uninteresting, the plot is unraveling itself rather haphazardly and aimlessly. I almost called it quits.

  Luckily I persisted. The second half of the ... (continue)

  I once wondered if it was a mistake buying this book when I was reading the first 100 pages. The pace is slow, the characters are distinct but uninteresting, the plot is unraveling itself rather haphazardly and aimlessly. I almost called it quits.

  Luckily I persisted. The second half of the book proves much more interesting - not because of sudden twists and turns and actions as there is none, but because it is at that point where one genuinely starts to care about what happens to the characters. It is also at that point where one realizes a lack of drama is not equal to a boring story; it actually makes the story more realistic and the characters more likable. The ending is predictably happy but it is not your typical happily ever afters, rather it is a sense of returning to normal, or a tempest having subsided. You know it's not the end of the problems, but at least the characters have weathered the storm together, as a family.

  Overall, A Spot of Bother may not be as eye-opening as Haddon's previous bestseller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, but it is still very well written and will not disappoint anyone. Just try to read past the first 100 pages or so.

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  Holmes said on Oct 14, 2007 | Add your feedback

• 4 people find this helpful

  

  I thought this was good, but not completely bowled over by it. It was nice reading the different people and their perspective, but it seemed to lack for me. This is a good book to read on a plane or on holiday, something light and sometimes humorous.

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  Amz310783 said on Jun 18, 2007 | Add your feedback

• 2 people find this helpful

  Alright

  A perfectly good read. Finished it in three sessions. It is long but easily read. Although I wish he wasn't so obsessed with people vomiting. There was literally someone throwing up on every other page.

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  Marie said on Feb 22, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  Wonderful book, packed with humanity. I found something (or more...) of myself in every character of the story. After a long period of time when, for me, reading was a sort of mountain climbing, I happily run through the 500 pages. I love Mark Haddon. Officially.

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  tam said on Jan 11, 2012 | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  I really, really liked this book.
  Funny, sad, real.
  It's the story of an English family...commune but not too much.
  I liked specially the organization of the chapters; each one is focused on one of the family members. Even if it's always the narrator talking, the point of view shift from on particul ... (continue)

  I really, really liked this book.
  Funny, sad, real.
  It's the story of an English family...commune but not too much.
  I liked specially the organization of the chapters; each one is focused on one of the family members. Even if it's always the narrator talking, the point of view shift from on particular character to another.
  Chapters get shorter and shorter when something is happening, giving you an actual feeling of hurry and chaos.

  For the 2nd time Haddon didn't let me down!
  Recommended!!!

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  gedeoskij said on Jan 9, 2012 | Add your feedback

• 

  I guess every contemporary book nowadays has a specific target, so I wonder which one is targeting this book.
  The characters are trivial, the plot is predictable, there is no emotion in it apart from a constant boredom that doesn't go away until the end - I suppose - or as you realize there's no re ... (continue)

  I guess every contemporary book nowadays has a specific target, so I wonder which one is targeting this book.
  The characters are trivial, the plot is predictable, there is no emotion in it apart from a constant boredom that doesn't go away until the end - I suppose - or as you realize there's no reason for a self-inflicted pain of reading.
  I got the second!

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  Tukaaa said on Nov 6, 2010 | Add your feedback

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Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Paperback 503 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0099507439
• ISBN-13: 9780099507437
• Publisher: Vintage
• Pub date: Jan 01, 2007
• Also available as: Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Libros en Español, llibres en català, Libri Italiani

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