Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon (2006)

Here is the latest from the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which I picked up in London a few years ago, really enjoyed and it has now been chosen as the Reading Together selection for our town. It took me a while to get into Spot of Bother, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. Haddon seems to be really able to get into people's heads. He gives you the average family - aging father George, slightly bored mother Jean who is having an affair, daughter Katy who's raising her son on her own, and gay son Jamie. All of their lives seem to be falling apart at the time Katy is planning a wedding to Ray, a steady type bloke, who isn't quite good enough for the rest of this family. The story is told in over a 100 snippets rotating between the viewpoints of these main characters. You see George getting confused and anxious, and you see people's reaction and interpretation of his confusion and anxiety. You see the dynamic between Ray and Katy. I got very early on, that Ray was the one that was going to get this family together in the end. Jamie's homosexuality was treated well, as was his relationship with Tony, his parents' attempt to accept, his own anxiousness about their acceptance, his reluctance to commit, etc. Great book!