A Spot of Bother

US: Jonathan Cape, 2006. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. A tight clean hardcover, no markings throughout: George Hall is an unobtrusive man. A little distant, perhaps, a little caut ious, not quite at ease with the emotional demands of fatherhood or of manl y bonhomie. "The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many t hings completely." Some things in life can't be ignored, however: his tempe stuous daughter Katie's deeply inappropriate boyfriend Ray, for instance, o r the sudden appearance of a red circular rash on his hip. At 57, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden and enjoying the freedom to be alone when he wants. But then he runs into a spot of bother. That red circular rash on his hip: George c onvinces himself it's skin cancer. And the deeply inappropriate Ray? Katie announces he will become her second husband. The planning for these frowned -upon nuptials proves a great inconvenience to George's wife, Jean, who is carrying on a late-life affair with her husband's ex-colleague. The Halls d o not approve of Ray, for vague reasons summed up by their son Jamie's obse rvation that Ray has "strangler's hands." Jamie himself has his own problem s - his tidy and pleasant life comes apart when he fails to invite his love r, Tony, to Katie's wedding. And Katie, a woman whose ferocious temper once led to the maiming of a carjacker, can't decide if she loves Ray, or loves the wonderful way he has with her son Jacob. Unnoticed in the uproar, George quietly begins to go mad. The way these damaged people fall apart - and come together - as a family is the true subject of Haddon's hilarious and disturbing portrait of a dignified man t.