A Spot of Bother
First edition (UK)
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| Author | Mark Haddon |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Mortality Psychology |
| Publisher |
Jonathan Cape (UK) |
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Publication date
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August 31, 2006 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 400 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 69124422 |
| Preceded by | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time |
Jonathan Cape (UK)
A Spot of Bother is the second adult novel by Mark Haddon, who is best known for his prize-winning first novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Like Curious Incident, A Spot of Bother examines mental health issues from the perspective of the patient.
An excerpt from A Spot of Bother (at that point titled Blood and Scissors) was published in the book New Beginnings, the proceeds from which were donated to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
The book was adapted into a film in 2009 (French: Une petite zone de turbulences).
The novel follows George Hall, a 57-year-old hypochondriac, and his family following George's retirement from a career manufacturing playground equipment. George has hypochondria, an excessive phobia for one's physical health. Certain that a skin lesion on his hip is a fatal cancer, George rejects Dr Barghoutian's diagnosis of eczema due to his previous misdiagnosis of Katie's appendicitis as stomach ache, and unsuccessfully attempts to remove the lesion with a pair of scissors. The resulting blood loss soon renders him unconscious, but not before he calls an ambulance and tries to get a chisel from the cellar in order to demarcate the incident as accidental. The resulting bloodied handprints he smears around the house in doing so horrify his wife Jean.
George and Jean's children confront problems of their own. Daughter Katie, a single mother, announces her plans to marry Ray, a competent but lower-class man of whom George, Jean, and their son Jamie disapprove. As the story progresses Ray worries that Katie wants to be with him only for his house and so he can act as a father to her five-year-old son Jacob. It is only when Katie visits George in the hospital that she realizes she and Ray are meant to be together: she proposes to Ray herself, and the couple rearrange the wedding. Meanwhile, Jamie has an uneasy relationship with his boyfriend Tony. When Jamie fails to pass on to Tony an invitation to Katie's wedding, arguing about how he would not enjoy it, Tony leaves him.
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Wikipedia