A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

A story about one George Hall slowly undergoing a bout of depression and panic attacks after finding a lesion at his hip which he suspects to be cancer. The novel pans out in the backdrop of his daughter, Katie getting remarried with Ray, an ultra safe and regular guy who is the exact opposite of her ex-husband.

As the story moves along, we find out the dark secrets of the Hall family: Jean, the Mother, is sleeping with George's ex-colleague. Jamie, the Son, is a homosexual who cares too much about how others might see his sexuality and hence is unwilling to commit to his relationship, and Katie, the Daughter, who marries a guy whom she is not sure that she loves but who would be able to provide her with all that she seeks.

The mode the novel was written in was confusing at the start, and it took a few chapters to get used to the jumping from a character view to another. Once you got used to it though, it felt to be an apt way of portraying the individual break-downs in relationships in each of the character's lives.

I especially liked the part where Katie discovered her love for Ray only after splitting up and questioning why she really wanted to marry him, and how Jamie realised his own iniquities after Tony left him in a hurry because he was not invited to Katie's wedding.

I guess it's very true that you will only find out what you treasure the most the moment you lose it.

The ending was happy and wholesome, with everyone finding their happiness and George regaining a certain sense of sanity by rejecting his panic.

A good read on the whole that allows the reader to really feel the panic and strange logic that bogged George throughout the novel and a good expository piece on our modern family and relational values.