Mark Haddon. (Author focus)

For my third author focus, I have chosen Mark Haddon, author of, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: the all-time classic, multi-million selling book, translated into untold languages and made into a West End play, but his first book is not all that he's good for, he's not just a one-trick pony.

     I first read, The Dog in the Night-time, some years ago now and then, when some of his other books came my way, I felt the need to delve deeper, explore a little more and I'd encourage you to do the same, because, A Spot of Bother is both funny, scary and sad all at the same time, and his exploration into family life, how they interact, clash, fight, envy, love, is spelled out in his third novel, The Red House, which again, is well worth a read.

     Then, his latest book, the collection of short stories that is, A Pier Falls, (not my normal fodder), was quirky, inviting, strange and damned right weird, but still had a certain something about it.

      Haddon has a very unusual writing style, which at first may seem strange, for there is a distinct lack of commas, semi-colons and other punctuation, but his characters, his settings, his prose, soon encapsulates you, pushing you through the stories, and I think it is his grasp of the mundane, the quirks of human beings, the simple every day, that make his books so readable, so down to earth and memorable.

     If you want a more in-depth review on the horrors of, A Spot of Bother, see my 25/04/17 post, family life in, The Red House can be found at 05/12/16 and if you've got the energy for more, The Pier Falls was reviewed on 30/08/16, so whatever you do, don't just leave it at, The Dog in the Night-time, a book that I will have to reread before giving you fine folk an honest an up to date review.

Enjoy.

A Spot of Bother, book review. (Mark Haddon)

Like Alice Sebold's, The Lovely Bones, this book has a stand out chapter, (chapter 60), in which our main character, George Hall - 57 and recently retired - decides to remove the lesion on the side of his body, with a pair of scissors. (Hence the cover art) When this fails, he decides to chisel it off instead, before succumbing to blood loss and passing out in his cellar.

The bloody trail he leaves and subsequent fright he causes his family on discovery, is both weirdly humorous and damned right shocking, but this chapter alone, underlines why the author is so revered.

Just to clarify, this book is not from the horror section.

Like Mark Haddon's other books, A Spot of Bother, is a story about normal people, going around doing normal things, but with a twist.

So, George Hall has retired, but life isn't all rosy. His wife is having an affair with his ex- business partner, his daughter is getting married, again, and to a man the family don't really approve of, his son, Jamie, is having commitment issues with his boyfriend, and George, well George is going steadily mad.

I like the way Haddon interjects life into seemingly inanimate material; creating depth and intrigue from the mundane. His writing reminds me of Ian McEwan, but with more humour.

There's a clever mix of human emotion here, from the families' pain and anguish, on discovering George's mutilation, through their love and anger - George finds out about the affair - to happiness and forgiveness, their coming together for the daughter's marriage, it's got the lot, and then some.

I liken this book to a good English movie! You know the sort, something with a few well-known actors in and a good solid story, but where nothing really happens. It would have Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith in it, Keeley Hawes would play the daughter, and you'd love their characters so much you'd watch it all the way to the end and then smile about it.

A good four star book this one; buy it, read it, share it.