Mark Haddon Double Whammy

In November I got a double dose of Mark Haddon, a new-to-me Brit writer (call me slow on the uptake, I guess). I read a NYT review of Haddon’s A Spot of Botherand decided to purchase that as well his previous book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.Smart move. While these novels are quite different from each other, they both abound in wit warmth.

The Curious Incident is a first-person narrative told by an autistic boy investigating the death of a neighbor’s dog. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to live as an autistic person in a world filled with “normals”, Haddon let’s you in. A Spot of Bother is a family farce that will cause potentially embarassing public cackling on the part of the reader. The book’s plot revolves around a rather anxious middle-aged father and includes a gay storyline among the others that slowly spiral in to the climax. Cheers.