{"description": "George Hall is an unobtrusive man. A little distant, perhaps, a little cautious, not at quite at ease with the emotional demands of fatherhood, or manly bonhomie. He does not understand the modern obsession with talking about everything. \u201cThe secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.\u201d Some things in life, however, cannot be ignored.\r\n\r\nAt 61, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden, reading historical novels and listening to a bit of light jazz. Then his tempestuous daughter, Katie, announces that she is getting re-married, to the deeply inappropriate Ray. Her family is not pleased \u2013 as her brother Jamie observes, Ray has \u201cstrangler\u2019s hands.\u201d Katie can\u2019t decide if she loves Ray, or loves the wonderful way he has with her son Jacob, and her mother Jean is a bit put out by all the planning and arguing the wedding has occasioned, which get in the way of her quite fulfilling late-life affair with one of her husband\u2019s ex-colleagues. And the tidy and pleasant life Jamie has created crumbles when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to the dreaded nuptials.\r\n\r\nUnnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his mind.\r\n\r\nThe way these damaged people fall apart \u2013 and come together \u2013 as a family is the true subject of Haddon\u2019s disturbing yet amusing portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.\r\n\r\nA SPOT OF BOTHER is Mark Haddon\u2019s unforgettable follow-up to the internationally beloved bestseller THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME. Here the madness \u2013 literally \u2013 of family life proves rich comic fodder for Haddon\u2019s crackling prose and bittersweet insights into misdirected love.", "lc_classifications": ["PR6058.A26 S66 2006"], "links": [{"title": "Observer Review", "url": "http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/sep/10/fiction.shopping", "type": {"key": "/type/link"}}, {"title": "New York Times review", "url": "https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/books/review/Kamp.t.html", "type": {"key": "/type/link"}}, {"title": "New York Times review", "url": "http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/07/books/07masl.html", "type": {"key": "/type/link"}}, {"title": "New York Times review", "url": "http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/books/review/Kamp.t.html", "type": {"key": "/type/link"}}], "title": "A Spot of Bother", "covers": [541428], "subject_places": ["Peterborough"], "first_publish_date": "2006", "key": "/works/OL2965133W", "authors": [{"author": {"key": "/authors/OL453119A"}, "type": {"key": "/type/author_role"}}], "excerpts": [{"pages": "1", "excerpt": "It began when George was trying on a black suit in Allders the week before Bob Green's funeral.", "author": {"key": "/people/sklibrarian"}}], "subjects": ["Literature", "Families", "Weddings", "english fiction", "Middle-aged men", "Psychological fiction", "Fiction", "Mortality", "Fiction, psychological", "Fiction, family life", "England, fiction", "Large type books", "New York Times reviewed", "Fiction, family life, general"], "type": {"key": "/type/work"}, "dewey_number": ["823/.914"], "identifiers": {"librarything": ["1815618"], "wikidata": ["Q4659763"]}, "genres": ["/tags/OL174T"], "latest_revision": 23, "revision": 23, "created": {"type": "/type/datetime", "value": "2009-12-10T01:16:06.328828"}, "last_modified": {"type": "/type/datetime", "value": "2026-08-29T13:23:54.203773"}}