I have to give it to Haddon. This book is just as hilarious and quirky as his previous book: Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time.
A Spot of Bother is about a British dysfunctional family whose lives get shaken up in the weeks before the daughter's wedding. There is the father who is having a nervous breakdown, the mother who is having an affair with his husband's friend, the daughter who has doubt about the marriage while the son who has commitment issues. With any other writer, you might feel like you do not give a damn what happens to such wretched people but Haddon tackles each of the shallow, selfish characters with his quirky sense of humor which going to proved you wrong. You won't get enough of it.
Haddon wants you to know the character and identified with them which probably why the first 100 pages of the book is a bit of a slog. Then events events start to accelerate and they don't let up until the final explosion and the wedding reception at the end of the novel. The last few chapters are the highlight of the book for me because it was simply hilarious.
In the end I thoroughly enjoyed "A Spot of Bother" and its characters. And I really can't wait to see what Haddon comes up with next.
