A Spot of Bother -

Mark Haddon

Vintage

2006

434 páginas

14h 28m

ISBN-13: 9780307386649

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 ignores the doctor's diagnosis of eczema and attempts to remove the area with a pair of scissors. The resulting blood loss nearly kills him, and the bloodied handprints he smears around the house in its aftermath 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 dependable 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, Tony leaves him. Jamie's problems prey increasingly on George's mind.
George begins to suffer from extreme panic attacks, which worsen after he discovers that Jean is having an affair with David, his former colleague. To distract himself from this terrible new insight George occupies himself with other pursuits, as his slow decline into dementia continues.
The story ends with George telling Jean that he is not as offended as she thinks he is about her secret love affair. The two end the novel returning to a comfortable atmosphere and an ordinary, settled household.

Resenhas (1)

3 (Bom)

Não fosse o fato da amiga que me emprestou este livro ter previamente me alertado de que ele não era tão bom quanto a obra anterior de Mark Haddon, minha decepção teria sido maior.
“A Spot of Bother” não é ruim mas, na minha opinião, não chega aos pés de “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time “ (primeira obra do autor).
O livro, de fácil leitura, tem alguns momentos divertidos, outros mais sérios, outros tragicômicos, mas não tem a criatividade do romance anterior. Tanto que, foi somente após mais de dois terços do livro que a leitura começou a fluir melhor.
Caso você se interesse em ler algo de Mark haddon, eu sugiro “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” que, apesar de voltado para o público infanto-juvenil, é bem mais interessante .
Detalhe: os dois livros possuem edição em português - “O Estranho Caso do Cachorro Morto” e “Uma Coisa de Nada” (primeiro e segundo livro, respectivamente).